To You, I Give Rewrite
by Alkenet
Summary: Two children, similar in situation, find comfort and solace in an innocent, childhood friendship. Eventual TsunaxOC
1. Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day, March 27th. The sun was shining, the birds were singing sweetly and Mifune Chi was downright _terrified_.

Why, you may ask?

Well, from going outside to being around people, Mifune Chi was NOT happy about being dragged outside to the park to meet someone Chi, herself, didn't know.

She whimpered pitifully. Her mother had felt her daughter's tiny hand grip her slender fingers even tighter. Mifune Makoto smiled sympathetically at her child and bent down, coming eye-to-eye with an identical pair of translucent yellow eyes.

"Chi-chan," she whispered comfortingly, "I know you're scared, but Nana-chan is my friend, I trust her, she won't hurt you."

"…" the little girl murmured almost silently. Makoto smiled gently, and soothingly rubbed Chi's head.

"I promise," she said, "she won't hurt you," the woman stood back up, her daughter's hand clinging tightly once more to her fingers, "Now where could she be?"

"Ma-chaaaan~!" came a voice from a short distance away. Makoto looked towards the voice, her eyes lighting up.

"Nana-chan~!" she waved with her free hand, taking note that Chi had hid behind her long, moss-green skirt, "We're over here! Come on, Chi-chan."

The two women met each other halfway and grinned ecstatically at the other.

"Ah, Ma-chan it's been such a long two years!" noted Nana, her brown eyes filled with happiness at seeing her longtime friend again.

Makoto laughed, the sound light, "It has, those phone calls just weren't enough!"

Nana giggled along, "True, true, phone calls aren't enough to cover the distance," the brown haired woman caught sight of black hair behind Makoto's skirt, "Ah, is that Chi-chan?"

Makoto nodded, seeing a spiky head of hair behind her friend's leg, "Mmhm, and is that Tsuna-kun?"

The two mothers pulled the two shaking children away from their hiding spots. Chi had turned as pale as a sheet while Tsuna had put up a small fight by clinging relentlessly to his mother's leg.

"Tsu-kun, Ma-chan's a very close friend of mine," Nana admonished gently, "You don't need to be scared."

Tsuna whimpered, turning away.

Chi looked down, her joints beginning to freeze up, preparing herself for either a verbal attack or muddy, and maybe gummy, projectile to get smushed in her hair again.

"Chi-chan," Makoto told her softly, "Why don't you go greet Tsuna-kun?"

Chi bit her lip, her legs didn't want to move, neither did her arms.

"U-um…" came a small voice. Chi visibly flinched as she slowly looked up, "M-my name i-is S-Sawada Tsu-Tsunayoshi, wh-what's your name?"

"M-Mifune Chi," she whispered, loudly enough for the both of them to hear, "It's nice to m-meet you…"

The two took this time to examine the tiny being in front of them.

A small boy in a light green t-shirt and tan shorts with a pair of dark brown sandals. His spiky hair stuck up in all directions.

'Spiky, but soft,' thought Chi.

His skin was a healthy shade, though it was also a bit clammy-looking at the moment. Tsuna's eyes were a very bright honey-brown, reminding Chi of her father's favorite caramel candies.

Tsuna was brought in by the girl's eyes. They were such a striking yellow, like those pretty stones his mommy would sometimes have hanging from her ears.

The girl was wearing a white t-shirt and black shorts, her tiny feet adorned with a pair of black sandals. Her hair was short and black, and was rather dull, having no shine. It curled a bit around her face too.

Her skin, however, had him curious.

She didn't look very healthy. The skin under her eyes were darker than the rest of her body. She seemed so tired…

The two noticed something.

They were both clinging to their mommies, shaking and wringing their hands. They let out a short giggle before smiling.

"It's nice to meet you too."

* * *

After the introductions, Makoto and Nana left their children to their own business, deciding to sit down on a nearby bench keeping a close eye on the two all the while talking about what the other had done in the two-year period they spent apart.

Tsuna and Chi were running all around the playground, which was surprisingly empty on this clear day.

The two had spent some time on the swings, trying to push past their fear of flying off the swings leading to an untimely death, but had soon decided that they were both too scared to go any higher than a foot off the ground.

Next, they chose to climb up the jungle gym, once more challenging their fear of falling and getting hurt.

Needless to say, they stayed at the lowest level.

They then decided that the safest thing to do next was to build a sandcastle. They looked around for something to carry water in and found a small, abandoned, unused plastic cup and excitedly ran to the sandbox to begin their building.

"U-um…Tsu-Tsuna-kun…?" Chi asked, hesitantly, "Are you having fun?"

Tsuna nodded, "Uh-huh! Are you…?" He had noticed that his 'maybe-friend' was looking rather 'white-ish'.

Chi had a small smile on her face, which was slowly going back to its healthier-looking pale shade, "I'm having fun, I like playing with you, Tsuna-kun."

They lapsed back into their almost comfortable silence, both poking and prodding at their own pile of damp sand before looking up at each other and grinning, getting rid of that last bit of discomfort.

After finishing their lop-sided sandcastle, their mothers helped them wash off the sand in the restrooms and had sat them down for lunch. Makoto and Nana were sitting at the bench again with Tsuna and Chi eating under the tree right next to them.

"How old are you, Tsuna-kun?" Chi asked, nibbling at an apple slice shaped as a bunny.

"I'm four-years-old," he replied, sipping his juice box.

"Ah! I'm four years old too!" Chi was surprised, she had never met anyone her age that was so nice!

"Really!?" Tsuna stared, wide-eyed. Seems the same went for Tsuna.

Chi nodded furiously, "I didn't go to the primary school here though, I went to one far away from here since my mommy and I were staying with my sick auntie. The kids there weren't very nice…" she trailed.

"The kids at my primary school aren't all that nice either…" Tsuna mumbled loud enough for only the two of them to hear, "but, if you're going to kindergarten here, then we could sit next to each other and play with each other too!" he smiled.

Chi let out a quiet, relieved sigh, "Okay."

With their lunch finished, Nana and Makoto decided to stay for a little while longer, wanting their children to bond some more before going home for the day; which left both Tsuna and Chi wondering what to do next.

They lounged under the tree, relishing in its cool shade.

"What do you want to do, Chi-chan?" Tsuna asked.

"I don't know, Tsuna-kun," she replied, "What else is there to do?"

Tsuna quickly sat up, "Ah! I know!" He looked over at his yellow-eyed friend, "Let's have an adventure!"

Chi sat up too, looking curious, "How do you play?"

Tsuna grinned, "We imagine!"

The two scrambled around looking for twigs to use as swords, declaring themselves swordsmen and the strongest in the world, ready to slay bad guys and monsters and protecting the innocent and weak.

"…Oh no!" Chi cried dramatically, "Tsuna-kun, the river's moving too fast! What do we do?"

Tsuna bit his lip, thinking, "We'll have to jump across, Chi-chan!"

They were standing next to the fountain and in front of a wide, half-dry puddle made from the water they took from the basin of the large, marble decoration. They looked at each other and the 'river' before leaping over and landing safely on the other side of the puddle.

"Yay! We did it!" the two cheered.

"Time to slay the dragon!" Tsuna shouted.

"And save the kingdom!" followed Chi.

Their first adventure had soon come to an end, it was reaching dinnertime and Nana and Makoto had to begin their preparations.


	2. Chapter 2

As the mother-child pairs left in opposite directions, Makoto noticed that her trembling daughter had a small smile on her pale face and her big yellow eyes glittering with happiness. Makoto smiled, and gently squeezed Chi's hand.

"Chi-chan?" she asked, her daughter looked up, "You look happy."

Chi blushed a dark pink, and nodded, "I had a lot of fun, Mommy," she answered.

Makoto let out a light chuckle, "Well then, this calls for a celebration, doesn't it? Why don't I make your favorite for dinner?"

Chi nodded happily.

Reaching their neighborhood, Chi had caught sight of her new friend and his mommy turning the corner. Curious, she tugged her mother's hand.

"Mommy?" she asked. Her mother looked down at her.

"What is it, sweetie?"

"How come you never told me that Tsuna-kun lived so close to us?"

She giggled, "I'm sorry Chi-chan, I wanted it to be a surprise~."

Chi pouted in response. It was a nice surprise to meet someone who was so much like her, but to think that for two of the years she had been living in Namimori, the perfect best friend was living just a few houses away from hers. Then, a thought popped in her mind.

"Does that mean I can go over and play with Tsuna-kun tomorrow, Mommy?" Makoto brushed some of Chi's hair back.

"I'll call Nana-chan and ask, okay?" Chi nodded excitedly, eager to finish the adventure she and Tsuna-kun had been unable to finish.

They still had to find the dragon's lair.

* * *

The next morning, Chi had practically inhaled her breakfast and was now trying to sit still, but couldn't help but tap her feet in anticipation. She was beginning to get antsy. Last night, Chi was so excited to learn that Sawada-san had allowed her to play with Tsuna-kun the following day.

'_Why do adults have to eat so slowly?'_ thought Chi wearily, looking over at her parents at the dining table, talking and eating as if they had all the time in the world.

She and Tsuna had a village to save! They couldn't waste any time eating!

At long last (which was really only a few minutes, but really, there were villagers to protect!), Makoto had cleaned off her plate and carried it over to the sink to wash. Her father was still sitting at the table, chuckling at his daughter's pout that had unconsciously made itself visible.

"Chi-chan, are you excited about playing with Tsunayoshi-kun?" he asked.

Chi nodded, eyes clenched shut, and hair waving about, "We haven't beaten the dragon yet!"

He chuckled again, "Dragon?"

Makoto came over and placed a hand on her husband's shoulder.

"She and Tsuna-kun were having quite the adventure the other day, Nao-kun~" Makoto explained, "Alright, Chi-chan! Let's go!" she announced, pressing a kiss against Naoto's cheek.

"Eeew…" Chi turned away. Her parents had only laughed.

* * *

The two walked up to the Sawada's front door and was greeted by Nana.

"Good morning Makoto-chan, Chi-chan!" Nana smiled, "Tsu-kun's in his room, Chi-chan. It's upstairs and the first door to the left."

Nana and Makoto went into the kitchen, leaving Chi to navigate the house. She walked upstairs, clinging to the railing. At the top, Chi looked around, trying to tell the doors apart when she caught sight of a small, blue, wooden fish cutout hanging from a door that read, 'Tsuna'. Grinning, Chi knocked on the door, rocking back and forth on her heels in eagerness. Hearing the knob being turned, Chi looked up, meeting the excited honey-brown eyes of Tsuna.

"Are you ready to play Chi-chan?" he asked. Chi nodded and stepped inside the room. There were toys and papers and games all over the floor. Chi held back a nervous smile, seeing the resemblance between her room and his.

"S-sorry it's so messy, Chi-chan…" Tsuna-kun looked at the floor, "I was looking for something we could use as swords."

Chi looked around, thinking, _'Maybe his mommy would let us use chopsticks? No, we might poke an eye or something…'_

"Do you have any crayons?" She asked. He nodded and pulled a big box from his desk.

"What are you gonna do?" Tsuna followed Chi downstairs where their mothers were talking.

"Sawada-san?" Chi asked.

"Hm? What is it?"

She nibbled on her bottom lip nervously before asking.

"Can Tsuna-kun and I borrow some scissors and cardboard?" Makoto had a curious look in her eyes.

"What are you planning sweetie?" Chi held up Tsuna's big box of crayons.

"We wanna make swords."

"Well, you're going to have to let us help, okay?" said Nana.

The two were back in Tsuna room staring at their new swords, one could almost see the sparkles coming off them.

Imaginary sparkles. They were just that cool.

"These are so cool!" Tsuna grinned widely. Chi held up her sword.

"Time to save the kingdom?" She asked. Tsuna nodded.

"Yeah! Let's go!" They went outside and ran around, hiding behind things so they wouldn't be hit by the 'fire-breathing dragon'. Chi was reveling in the adventure, not recalling a time when she had this much fun with anyone her age.

'_I hope Tsuna-kun wants to keep being friends with me,'_ thought Chi, _'It'd make school a lot less lonely.'_


	3. Chapter 3

Summer was ending, and school was going to be in session once again. Much to Chi's despair. She and her mother were in the kitchen getting something to drink to fight the heat of that hot afternoon.

"Mommy…" Chi whimpered quietly, tugging at her mother's light pink skirt, "I don't wanna go to school…"

Makoto sighed. She had expected this.

At Chi's previous school, her daughter didn't get along well with the other students, which was an extreme understatement. Chi had often gone home covered in mud or water or had gum stuck in her hair, which warranted an agreement to keep it short.

And how could Makoto forget all those sleepless nights where she would come running into her daughter's room after her sweet little girl would wake up with a piercing shriek falling from her chapped lips, and her skin, as pale as it was, had turned gray-white in absolute horror? She'd hold her daughter so tightly and rock her back and forth all night to chase away those horrifying terrors just to be certain that her dear child would sleep soundly.

Makoto filled a small cup with some orange juice and knelt down to give it to Chi.

"Sweetheart," she started, "I know you're scared, but it'll be okay," she reassured, running her fingers through Chi's short boyish hair, "Tsuna-kun's going to the same school as you, you know."

Chi's yellow eyes widened, "Really?" she asked, her voice whispery but filled with excitement.

Makoto nodded, "Mmhm, Nana-chan and I will be walking the two of you to school, you won't be alone, this time Chi-chan," she explained, stroking her daughter's pale cheek and returning the tiny, nervous smile with a comforting grin.

* * *

The next morning, Makoto and Chi were standing outside the Sawada home. Makoto had knocked some seconds earlier and the two were now waiting for the door to be opened.

The front door and creaked open and Nana's cheerful face appeared.

"Good morning Ma-chan, Chi-chan!" she greeted, stepping out she closed the door, Tsuna quickly falling into step with his mother, "Ready to go?"

"Yep!" replied Makoto, her voice lilting a bit with worry.

The walk to Namimori's kindergarten was peaceful. There were other mothers walking their children and the children were all chattering excitedly about the first day of school.

Tsuna and Chi made sure to tell their own mothers that they didn't want to be near the other children, both worried of what they would say or do. Nana and Makoto had agreed and decided to take a more secluded route.

Reaching the school gates, Tsuna and Chi released simultaneous and quiet 'wow's of amazement.

The building was much larger than their preschool and thus, would hold more children.

That thought alone made the two tremble in terror.

They didn't have much time to dwell on it, as their mothers were pulling them along inside. They had stopped in front of a door with a sign above it saying, 'Office'.

Inside, the room was filled with the school staff. Tsuna and Chi were looking around the strange room warily, eying the adults with a cautious gaze all the while clinging to their mommies.

Nana searched the room, "Hm, I wonder if one of the staff can tell us where the classrooms are?"

"Nana-chan," Makoto laughed, "They're teachers, I'm sure they can tell us where the kindergarten classes are."

Receiving directions, the mothers and their children left the office, bidding the adults inside a quick goodbye.

"Okay you two~!" Nana gushed.

"Time to get to class!" finished Makoto, looking pale. The two mothers began walking a few steps ahead, occasionally looking back to make sure Tsuna and Chi were right behind them.

Tsuna moved closer to Chi and grabbed her hand. Jolting at the sudden contact, Chi looked at her hand before looking at Tsuna.

"A-are you okay, Tsuna-kun?" she asked, her voice quiet and filled with trepidation. Tsuna swallowed and shook his head, face pale and body shaky. Chi slightly nodded her head in understanding, and the two squeezed each others tiny hands.

They walked together until the group had finally reached their destination.

Nana clapped her hands together, "Okay, this is our stop~!"

Makoto, Tsuna and Chi peeked inside the classroom, ignoring the colorful decorations used to appeal to young children, all three were turning almost as white as a sheet at the number of people inside.

Tsuna and Chi clung to Makoto's long skirt as she asked, "N-Nana-chan, d-do you think they'll be okay here…?"

Nana nodded, a bright grin on her face, "They'll be fine!" Nana gently pulled the children's hands off Makoto's skirt and took them inside, Makoto hesitantly following after.

Chi glanced around, slowly taking everything in. Recognizing some of the children from her primary school, she let out a quiet whimper. Hearing this, Tsuna gripped their entwined hands tighter.

Makoto and Nana spoke with their teacher and looked at a seating chart for their children, noting that the two would be sitting together. Tsuna and Chi were hiding behind their mothers, looking about the classroom nervously.

"Okay you two" Makoto pulled at Chi's hand, Tsuna being dragged along, "Time to find your seats…" she trailed, seeing all the other children already forming groups of friends.

Makoto kneeled down and patted Chi's head, "Chi-chan, i-it'll be okay, I promise," she said. Chi looked back, her eyes wide and watery, she clung tightly to her mother. Makoto gave her a strained smile and held her daughter's hand up, kissing the back of the tiny, pale hand and forehead. Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Makoto turned back to Nana.

"We better hurry, Ma-chan," Nana warned, "The bell's going to ring!"

"R-right, o-okay," she stammered in reply, making sure Tsuna and Chi were in the right seats at one of many short and round tables in the classroom, the two mothers stepped out of the classroom with the other parents.

Upon leaving the school gates, Makoto burst into tears.

"Ma-chan, what's wrong?" Nana cried. Her friend pulled out a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes.

"J-just th-thinking about a-all those children in there," Makoto spluttered, "Chi-chan must be terrified!" Nana rubbed Makoto's back reassuringly, giving her a cheery smile.

"They'll be fine," she said, "They have each other to play with now!"

* * *

Unbeknownst to the mothers, Tsuna and Chi were too scared to move from their table when it was recess. The two had stayed inside and were staring at all the other students playing outside.

Chi was all white and shaking horribly in her seat. Her eyes were watery and her breaths shaky.

'_I-I don't wanna go outside! Those kids will bully me again…!'_ she thought, her hands gripping the edge of her chair. Suddenly, Chi felt someone place a hand over hers. She immediately turned her head to the side to find Tsuna sitting closer.

"Chi-chan, are you okay?" He asked, Chi blinked a few times and shook her head, the tears that had been building up flying off her cheeks.

"…I-I d-don't know…" her face was beginning to get hot, "…I'm scared…" Tsuna tightened his grip.

"I-it's okay…" he smiled, "We don't have to go on the playground, we can just sit here, if you want."

Chi quickly shook her head in response, "Y-you won't have any fun, Tsuna-kun…"

He bit his lip, "I don't wanna play with the others either," he said, "They're kinda scary…"

Chi began to cry quietly, the sheer terror she felt about going outside with the other children finally bursting through. Tsuna began patting her head, not wanting to see his friend cry. Her pretty, yellow eyes didn't look right when they were filled with so much water.

When recess was over, the class had resumed learning about colors and how to make different ones.

"Everyone choose a partner!" their teacher said. Tsuna and Chi looked at each other.

"Partners?" Tsuna asked.

"Mm!" Chi nodded.

"Okay," the teacher clapped her hands together, "Today we'll be working with paint! I want you to all put one dot of whatever color you want with another color on your bug, press the two sides together and see what you make, okay?"

"Yes, Sensei!" everyone chorused. Their teacher passed out large, paper cutouts of a butterfly to each pair and made sure each student's apron was worn securely.

"My," she said quietly when she reached the table of the quiet duo, trying to avoid attracting attention, "aren't you two lucky, a table all to yourselves," she smiled knowingly. She took note that they obviously preferred to stay away from the others due to nervousness or fear.

They quickly looked down, faces red. When the teacher finished passing everything out she spoke up, "Try not to make too big of a mess, and have fun!"

"What color do you wanna use first, Chi?" asked Tsuna. Chi looked at the three squeeze bottles on their table, there was red, yellow, and blue. She picked the yellow one, it reminded her of her mommy.

"This one," she replied in a whisper, squeezing a small drop on the left side of the paper butterfly. Tsuna nodded approvingly. He looked at the other bottles and slowly grabbed the red one, squeezing a dab on top of the yellow dot. Once each pair finished the first paper, their teacher passed out another for them to decorate. The class continued on, and soon enough, the day was over.

The teacher clapped her hands, "Okay everyone, leave your butterflies on the table to let it dry, and you can take it home tomorrow!" She turned to the clock and back to her students.

"Alright everyone, remember, when the 'minute-hand', that's the long stick, is on the six and the 'hour-hand', that's the short stick, is on the twelve, it's time to go home. Or 'be dismissed'," she said, "Understand?"

The children nodded and replied, "Yes, Sensei!"

Their teacher had them stand in line and walk out of the classroom, many of the children becoming excited when they saw their mommy or daddy waiting outside.

Immediately spotting their own mommies, Tsuna and Chi ran to them hand-in-hand.

"Mama/Mommy!" they cried, tugging at their mommies' skirts. Nana laughed, while Makoto had bent down and hugged her daughter tightly.

"Chi-chaaaan!" she nearly sobbed, "Was everything okay? Are you alright? Do you need to wash your face? Ah! Paint!"

"Ma-chan," Nana scolded lightly, "It's fine, the kids were just painting something! Isn't that right, Tsu-kun~?"

Tsuna nodded, trying to get a bit of paint of his cheek by rubbing, but only smearing it.

"Let's just get home and wash up, okay?" Nana began leading the way home, Makoto walking next to her and Tsuna and Chi walking a few steps ahead, quietly chattering away.

"We already beat the dragons," said Tsuna, "What should we beat next?"

"Hm," Chi hummed, "…Mmm…ogres?"

"Ah!" Tsuna exclaimed, "Yeah! That's a great idea!"

When the mother-child pairs came to the Sawada home, Tsuna and Chi had raced upstairs to get their swords and nearly stumbled outside in their excitement of having a new adventure.

"Stay away from the gardens, you mean ogre!" shouted Tsuna, waving his cardboard sword around.

"The townspeople need to eat too!" scolded Chi.

"Chi-chan!" called Makoto, "It's time to get going, sweetheart! It's getting late!"

"Aww," Tsuna and Chi groaned, nonetheless, they relented and went back inside, realizing that the sky had darkened considerably while they were fighting a vicious pair of ogres.

Makoto and Chi stood outside, Nana and Tsuna following after to send them off.

"Get home safely then Ma-chan~" Nana bowed slightly. Makoto and Chi bowed back.

"Don't worry Nana-chan, our house isn't that far away," Mommy giggled.

Tsuna was holding Chi's hands while Nana and Makoto continued to talk.

"Goodnight Chi-chan!" he grinned, "We'll beat those mean, ugly ogres tomorrow!"

'_I get to play with Tsuna-kun tomorrow; I get to play with Tsuna-kun tomorrow!'_ Chi blushed with glee at the thought, she nodded excitedly, then bowed, "Goodnight Sawada-san, Tsuna-kun!"

Waving goodbye, Makoto and Chi went on their way.

"Did you have fun at school, sweetheart?" Makoto asked, her voice warm. Chi nodded slowly.

"I-it was really scary…" she replied quietly, "B-but, Ts-Tsuna-kun and I h-had fun."

Upon reaching their own home, they saw Naoto leaning on the doorframe.

"Daddy!" Chi cried, letting go of her mommy's hand and running up to her daddy. Naoto kneeled down and caught her, picking her up and laughing as he tossed her in the air before resting Chi on his hip.

"We're home, Nao-kun~" Makoto gave him a kiss on the cheek before the trio retreated inside.

"I made your favorite, Chi-chan," said Naoto, smiling when his daughter's face lit up.

"Really?" she asked, wrapping her pale arms around his neck when he nodded, "Thank you, Daddy!"

The three sat down and after saying their thanks, Chi's parents had struck up a conversation, letting Chi finish the dinner of croquettes and miso soup in a comfortable silence. She observed her mommy and daddy, talking animatedly about their day.

Her mommy was very pretty, in her eyes. Long black hair that reached her elbows, shiny yellow eyes that Chi had heard her daddy describe as 'topaz', and a warm smile that never failed to make Chi feel warm and fuzzy, her mommy wasn't tall, but she wasn't short either, and always had a graceful stride when she walked, Chi liked it when her mommy's eyes would light up and she'd release that gentle, bell-like laugh.

Her daddy, according to her mommy, was 'incredibly handsome'. Whatever that meant. He had deep brown eyes hiding behind black-framed glasses; black, medium length hair that would occasionally cover his eyes, he was tall and lanky, but with some defined muscle. Whenever he laughed his smooth, strong laugh, Chi couldn't help but feel as if she were wrapped in a comfy blanket and when her daddy smiled that one smile saved for her and her mommy, she felt safe.

Finishing her soup, Chi sipped at her water and wiped at her mouth with her napkin. Seeing that Chi had cleared her plate, Makoto spoke.

"Chi-chan, ready for your bath?" she asked. Chi nodded and jumped down from her chair, "Nao-kun, you don't mind doing the dishes, do you?"

Naoto shook his head, "Go on, Chi-chan needs her bath."

After Chi had her bath and brushed her teeth, Makoto and Naoto were tucking her in.

"So how was school today, Chi-chan?" Naoto asked. Chi tugged a loose string on her blanket.

"…There were a lot of people…" she murmured. Makoto smiled.

"But you were in the same class as Tsuna-kun, right?" Chi's face turned pink and she nodded shyly. Naoto laughed.

"Is that so," he pushed some of Chi's hair back and kissed her forehead, "Well, you're very lucky to have a friend like him huh?" she smiled a little.

"…yeah…" she yawned. Makoto let out a soft sigh and kissed Chi on the forehead too.

"It's getting a little late for our little girl," she wrapped their daughter in her light green blanket and both she and Naoto left her room after turning off the lamp and making sure the nightlight was working. Chi turned and stuffed her face into her pillow, grinning largely.

She couldn't wait to go to school tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite Chi having found a friend in Tsuna, the bullying she experienced in preschool had only gotten worse as the duo grew older.

Chi had also discovered that Tsuna had an affinity for failing quizzes and tests, sports, and arts and crafts. Thus earning him the name, 'Dame-Tsuna' or 'No-good-Tsuna'.

On Chi's side, her skin had stayed a sickly white since she had decided that going outside had nothing worthwhile to provide her other than her best friend, video games, and manga and opted to stay inside. And, much to her surprise, her yellow eyes had become more striking as she grew up. Coupled with her shy and quiet personality, their peers had deemed her odd and strange. Therefore, they had called her, 'Freak' due to her complexion and strange eyes.

For the next ten years, she (and sometimes Tsuna) had been pelted with mud, rocks, gum and other questionable objects. And most of the time after school, Chi would either be told/asked/dragged to certain areas of the campus and be harassed face to face by her tormentors and when the two entered middle school, beatings would become common. The others would often mock her for not fighting back.

But every time she tried, they'd only retaliate and leave Chi to be sent to the hospital (but those were rare cases). If she ran, the result would be the same.

She didn't get angry at them though. Because honestly, who would want their world to be overtaken by monsters with paper white skin and yellow eyes whose voices were, at their loudest, whispers and rasps?

It was because of this that Chi had not told any of her teachers that her peers were treating her this way. Always making excuses about tripping over her own feet or falling down stairs, Chi was already known to be naturally clumsy, so the staff had no trouble believing her.

Makoto's worries had become stronger due to the bruises and cuts her daughter would come home with day after day, but Chi would merely brush it off, saying she could take care of it and would refuse any offers of going to a different school from fear of being separated from Tsuna.

Chi honestly didn't care if the others at school didn't like her for whatever reason. As long as Tsuna had wanted to be her friend, she'd be perfectly content.

But she soon realized that just knowing she had a friend and a loving mother couldn't protect her from her own depreciating thoughts...

But that's for another time.

And so, life had continued on like this for the next ten years, and through those ten years, the friendship between Tsuna and Chi had strengthened. Everyday the two would get together and play video games or read their manga with each other. It was rare to see one without the other.

And now, it was another year at the hellish Namimori Middle.

Standing in front of the body length mirror in her room, Chi gave herself a once-over.

She was now a young girl of medium height, the ends of her black hair just touching the undersides of her shoulder blades. Her topaz-colored eyes were slightly covered by her bangs, the nervousness that was seen in them hidden from view, nightmares from the night before had darkened the skin underneath. Pale arms slid through the sleeves of her school-issued shirt and the beige skirt standing out from her thin figure. Straightening her red bow around her collar, Chi took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly and shakily.

It was time for school.

She didn't want to go, for obvious reasons. Fortunately, spending time around Tsuna had helped lessen her fear of people, though not by much, but at least now she wouldn't burst into tears at the very thought of seeing other people.

Bidding her mother goodbye with a kiss on the cheek after trying to stomach half of her breakfast, Chi began walking to Tsuna's house.

Chi sighed, "Another day, another trip to the hospital…probably…" she unconsciously touched the side her head, fingers grazing over a certain area under her hair, her eyes glazed over in thought as she walked along the same path she always took to her best friend's home, "Please let this day pass by quickly..."

Reaching the front door, Chi knocked.

"Come in!" Nana called out from inside, "The door's unlocked!"

"Good morning, Auntie Nana," greeted Chi politely, stepping in and taking off her shoes. She was quickly held tightly by an excited Nana who sat her down at the kitchen table.

"Good morning Chi-chan!" she said, gleefully, "Here you go!" She placed a freshly made omelet in front of the girl.

"Ah…" Chi started nervously, "Auntie, my mom already made breakfast for me…"

"Oh nonsense!" She waved her spatula around in short circles, "I know Ma-chan makes Tsu-kun breakfast whenever he comes over in the morning~!"

Chi sighed quietly, "A-alright…" she put her hands together, "Thank you for the food," and proceeded to eat, letting out a happy mumble when the savory taste hit her tongue.

Nana looked and the clock and sighed, "Speaking of mornings, I wonder if Tsu-kun's woken up yet?"

Swallowing another bite, Chi said, "I can check for you if you'd like?"

Nana shook her head, "What kind of host would I be if I made you do that?" She started up the stairs with Chi following.

"It's alright, really, you should finish making his lunch," Chi argued.

Nana let out a light giggle, "Well, if you're going to fight about it, we'll both check on him."

She opened the door to reveal her son's messy room. Nana sighed heavily, "Oh honestly," She began walking around picking up various pieces of wrinkled clothing and papers with numerous red marks from past tests and tossing them in their respective places.

Chi was still standing in the door way, her eyes were wide open in shock, _'Didn't I help him clean up his room yesterday?'_ she thought.

Nana was pulling another piece of paper from Tsuna's desk. He had most likely tried hiding it, but stuffing it in a drawer filled with past crumpled failed tests probably wasn't such a good idea, that drawer looked ready to burst…

Chi frowned a little and glanced over at her best friend contently sleeping away, a bit disappointed in his choice of a hiding spot.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi!" Nana exclaimed, her lips set into a small frown. Tsuna immediately shot up, arms and legs flailing everywhere.

"AH! Wha?" Tsuna was tangled in his blanket as he stared at his mom, "HIEEE! Why do you have that!" he shouted.

He threw out an arm to tear away the test Nana had in her hand. Failing at doing so, Nana had begun scolding Tsuna about his scores and lack of motivation. Chi stood silent behind her, not knowing what to do. Once she finished, Nana went downstairs, leaving the two to themselves.

"Sorry you had to see that, Chi," Tsuna groaned, rubbing his head.

"It's okay," Chi reassured, picking up a few things and putting them back where they were yesterday, "To be honest…I'm used to it."

Tsuna scoffed, "I'm not surprised, there's a reason everyone makes fun of us…" He grabbed his uniform and went to the bathroom. As he was taking a quick shower, Chi continued cleaning, letting the task clear her mind.

"Tsu-kun! Chi-chan! Hurry up or you'll be late again!" called Nana from the bottom of the stairs.

The two ran down the stairs and out the door saying a quick, 'goodbye!'

Nana giggled, "Those two...hm?" Nana picked up Chi's plate with a barely touched omelet, "Well, they _were_ in a hurry."

* * *

Tsuna and Chi were speeding down the sidewalk towards Namimori Middle in order to avoid the wrath of their school's disciplinary committee head, Hibari Kyoya, who was known for his vicious beatings as punishment for breaking rules.

Fortunately, the two made it to their seats just as the bell rang.

Sitting down, they sighed in relief. Turning around to look at Chi, Tsuna said, "Good thing Hibari-san didn't catch us running, huh?" he laughed hesitantly.

She nodded, nervously, "Yeah…I really don't want to be on the receiving end of those tonfas…" They both shivered at the thought of being struck by the solid steel weapons.

Chi laid her head on her desk face-down as the other students began to tease and laugh her and Tsuna for almost being late...again. Chi flinched when she felt a paper ball hit the back of her head. Fortunately, the teacher came in to begin the day.

…Which quickly came to a near close in a blur of mocking and bullying from the other students who had continuously called them names. Now, the two were ending their PE classes by cleaning whatever it was the other students didn't want to clean up…which meant everything.

Chi grunted quietly when she hit the ground, her arms and legs littered with blossoming bruises. She pushed herself up on her elbows and no higher, too scared to face the other girls who had pushed her down. She let out a whimper when one of the girls grabbed her by the hair.

"Don't you know your manners?" the girl teased, "Look at someone when they're talking to you!"

"Yeah!" said another girl, "It's no wonder your teachers don't like you, you're so rude!" The rest of the group of girls cackled loudly. Chi trembled and bit her lip, still not looking up.

"So," said the first girl, "you'll clean up everything, right? We got things to do and people to see. We don't have time to clean the field today." She tugged harder on Chi's hair, "You better clean it all up, got it?" she threatened. Chi nodded shakily and was again thrown on the ground while the other girls went to the locker rooms, chattering as if they didn't just beat a student into submission.

Chi whimpered again as she stood up, _'I hope Tsuna's not having too much trouble…' _she thought, gathering all the softball equipment the girls used that day, _'I better hurry so I can help him out…'_

Once she finished, Chi ran to the gym where the boys had their PE class, ignoring the sharp pains running up and down her body. Stepping inside, Chi found her best friend standing by the window in the empty gym, staring outside with a wistful gaze and holding a push broom with a loose grip.

'_Ah,'_ Chi surmised, _'It's probably Sasagawa-san again,'_ she shivered.

Chi didn't really have anything against Sasagawa Kyoko, except that the girl in question had an air about her that commanded attention whenever she stepped into a room. That feeling was so strong, Chi felt completely intimidated and frightened by her, it didn't help that Sasagawa Kyoko was considered the most beautiful girl at Namimori Middle and currently held the attention of Tsuna.

Which was probably the one thing that scared her the most; Chi didn't want to entertain the idea that one day, inevitably, Sasagawa Kyoko would steal away her best friend from her, leaving Chi alone and at the mercy of the cruel world. Nonetheless, Chi wanted to make sure that Tsuna was happy, so she supported him and his feelings for the school idol entirely.

"Tsuna," Chi called. Flinching away from the window, Tsuna looked around for the source of the voice.

Spotting Chi, Tsuna stammered, "Ch-Chi! How long were you there?"

Chi forced a smile, "Long enough to see you gawking at Sasagawa-san," she teased lightly. Tsuna's face became beet red and stuttered some more before putting all of his strength into cleaning the gym.

'_Ah…'_ Chi thought nervously, _'I shouldn't have teased him, I'll make it up to him after we're finished.'_

* * *

After retrieving their shoes from their lockers, Chi stopped Tsuna at the front gate.

"What's up, Chi?" he asked, wondering why his best friend had a guilty expression on her face.

She played with her fingers a bit, biting at the inside of her cheek, "I want to treat you to ice cream!" she blurted, her face flushing.

"Huh?" Tsuna was confused, "Why?"

"A-as an apology!"

"For what?"

"F-for getting you upset when we were cleaning up!" she admitted.

"Eh!?" Tsuna exclaimed, "Y-you don't have to do that, Chi! I-it's okay, really!"

She shook her head, her face expressing an uncommon look of stubbornness, "I made up my mind!" she took his hand and dragged him to their favorite ice cream store, "I'm treating you, whether you like it or not!"

Upon reaching the store, Chi sat Tsuna down at one of the white tables outside and rushed inside to order their favorite flavors.

'_Aaah,'_ sighed Chi mentally, _'I'm lucky no one stole money from me today!'_

Walking back outside Chi handed Tsuna a medium sized cup of vanilla with a bit of chocolate syrup drizzled on top and sat down next to him, holding her own cup of mint ice cream.

Sighing, Tsuna reluctantly began to eat his ice cream, "Thank you, Chi," he said, a small grin on his face. Chi smiled back.

They ate their cold treats in comfortable silence until Tsuna spoke up.

"Chi?"

"Yeah?"

Tsuna glanced at Chi's thighs, the darkening bruises peeking out from under the hem of her skirt, "Those bruises…"

Chi's yellow eyes widened, "A-ah…I-I…"

"You can't use the 'falling down the stairs' excuse," said Tsuna, sternly, "I know you're not that clumsy."

Chi nibbled on her bottom lip, "I-It was after PE…y-you know how th-those girls can…can get…"

"We should've gone to the nurse," Tsuna dug into Chi's school bag, knowing her first aid kit was inside.

"I-it's okay, Tsuna…" she tried to argue, but all Tsuna did was toss a cold compress into her arms.

"Use it, I don't want the others to point it out and get you more nervous and self-conscious than you already are," he explained.

"...Thank you, Tsuna."

After eating the two were on their way home.

"Hey, Chi?" asked Tsuna.

"Hm?" she replied.

"You wanna sleep over again? I'm in the mood to try and finish that game from yesterday," he said. Chi nodded excitedly.

Last night, they were making their way through various puzzles and mazes in their game and had to stop playing when Nana had warned them that they should get to sleep soon or risk being late for school.

"Let me call my mom first," Chi took out her phone and called, they continued walking with Tsuna in front, giving Chi some privacy as she spoke over the phone. Flipping it closed and giving Tsuna an affirmative nod, the pair sped home in anticipation to finish the level they were on and beyond.

"Mom!" Tsuna called when they walked in, "We're home!"

"Ara!" Nana came running out from the back, from the sun hat she was wearing, the two in the doorway concluded that she was working in the garden out back, "Tsu-kun~ Chi-chan~!" She cried, "Welcome home!"

"Nana-chan?" came a voice, "Was that Chi-chan and Tsuna-kun I heard?"

"Mom?" Chi looked behind Nana and was brought back a few steps from Makoto's exuberant embrace.

"Sweetheart, did everything at school go okay? You're not hurt are you? Oh! You didn't finish your breakfast this morning, you must be hungry! I'll go make something for you!" Makoto rambled. Nana laughed and unlatched Makoto's arms from Chi's waist.

"Now, now Ma-chan, they just got home," Nana scolded lightly, "Let them settle down a bit before you interrogate them," Nana gave the two a grin, "Go upstairs, you two, we'll bring up some snacks later."

Walking upstairs, Tsuna whispered to Chi, "Lucky we got rid of those bruises, huh?"

Chi, who was pale-faced, nodded.

Finishing their homework in the early evening, Tsuna and Chi were all ready to finish their game, until…

"Tsu-kuuun! Chi-chaaan!" Called their mothers from below.

"It's time for dinner!" Nana shouted.

"Don't let it get cold!" Makoto warned.

"Awww!" they groaned, upset that their game was interrupted.

But, the blow was softened with the promise of delicious, home-cooked food made by their very own mothers. Tsuna and Chi came down and enjoyed their meal of fried mackerel with rice and a side of vegetables.

Once finished, Makoto excused herself from the table, "Alright, I'll be heading home now," she said. She walked over to Chi's seat and kissed her on the forehead, "Call if you need anything, okay Chi?"

Chi nodded, "I will, get home safe, Mom!"

Makoto smiled, "Don't worry, I will."

"I'll walk you to the door, Ma-chan," offered Nana, "You two go on to your video games~."

"Be sure to get to bed early, Chi!" shouted Makoto before the two went inside Tsuna's room, receiving a muffled, 'Yes, Mom!'

"Hmm~!" hummed Nana, "I think those two are getting better~!"

Makoto held her cheek, "I hope so, Chi hasn't been talking much though, and she's been looking rather thin…"

Nana rubbed her friend's back, "I'm sure it's just a phase, by the way," she gave Makoto a worried gaze, "Are you doing okay with Naoto-kun out and about across the world with Iemitsu?"

Makoto nodded, "I'm fine, he sends small messages through the phone every now and then, but I always scold him since it's such a far distance, and it might cost him a lot just for one call."

Nana giggled brightly.

Hearing her, Makoto flushed darkly, "Wh-what?"

"You and Naoto-kun are so cute!" she gushed, "I remember when you kept talking about him in high school~! The both of you would blush just walking next to each other~!"

"Nanaaa!" Makoto whined, her face still red.

* * *

"What do you want to play next, Chi?" asked Tsuna, rummaging through their moderate collection of video games with various genres.

It had been about two hours after Makoto had gone home and Tsuna and Chi had finished at least one third of the newest game they bought last week, they washed up, got ready for bed and decided that there was still time to play something else before sleeping.

"Hm," Chi flipped through the different boxes and picked up a fighting game, "I'm in the mood to kick your butt," she teased. Tsuna eyed the box.

"Oh really?" he challenged, "'Cause from what I remember, the score was my twelve wins to your eight."

"Oho, fighting words, huh?" Chi inserted the game and picked up her controller, the black one, and tossed Tsuna his, the white one.

Although their conversation was merely playful banter, the competitive aura in the room was almost tangible…though it was quickly dispelled once Tsuna's mother came in with a tray of lightly salted and boiled soybeans and two warm cups of green tea.

"I thought the two of you might still be a bit hungry after dinner, so I made you some snacks~" She chirped.

Nana put the plate on the table in the middle of Tsuna's room and left with a cheerful "Goodnight!"

"Goodnight!" they replied.

Tsuna and Chi stared at their snack and then the TV screen, eyes going back and forth between the two.

…Decisions, decisions…

Nevertheless, when it was time to go to bed, the snacks were finished, the tea was gone, and Chi's eight wins had increased to fourteen while Tsuna's stayed at twelve.

In the darkened room, dimly lit by the streetlights from outside, Tsuna and Chi were lying face-to-face on Tsuna's bed. Considering that the two were both rather scrawny, they easily fit and had room to spare for rolling around in their sleep.

"Goodnight Chi," Tsuna murmured sleepily. He held Chi's hand tightly and laid his forehead against hers.

"Goodnight Tsuna," She whispered, gently squeezing his hand. They both let out a soft sigh before allowing the comforting darkness of sleep take over.


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay, did I set this up right?" Tsuna tapped Chi's shoulder. She looked away from her own worksheet and scanned the scribbles on Tsuna's paper. She narrowed her eyes a bit when she spotted an error.

"You need to switch these two numbers, the formula goes like this…" She wrote the equation in an empty area on his paper then returned to her own homework.

It was after-school and Tsuna and Chi decided to hang out at the Sawada home while Chi's mother was grocery shopping.

They continued to complete their homework in comfortable silence until they were interrupted by someone at the door.

_Knock Knock_

The two looked at each other in confusion. The knocking was too high-pitched for Nana…

Suddenly the door slammed open to reveal a small figure the size of a tiny child, its face covered by the shadows made by the brim of the fedora it was wearing.

Chi reacted to the loud noise by going stiff, her eye twitching. Tsuna put a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"M-My door!" he cried indignantly, squeezing Chi's shoulder, "Who are you!?" he shouted at the small figure at the door.

"Ciaossu," greeted the person, its voice high but deep enough for the shocked teens to learn that the tiny person was a male, "I'm your home tutor, Reborn," he smirked.

Chi responded by fainting, her face had gone as white as a sheet.

"Ch-Chi!" Tsuna caught her before she hit the floor and lowered her gently, he took one of the notebooks on the table and started to fan her. Before Tsuna could shout at the 'tutor', Nana had come in the room, completely oblivious to the state of her friend's daughter.

"Ah! Tsu-kun~ I see you and Chi-chan met Reborn-kun~" she smiled cheerfully. Tsuna turned away from Chi, temporarily stopping in trying to revive her.

"Mom!" he yelled, "Wh-who is this kid!? He's not really a tutor, is he!?"

Nana had only giggled, "I found a flyer of his in our mailbox, he said he can train you to be the leader of the next generation!" she explained as she went downstairs.

"Right, that doesn't sound fishy at all!" he deadpanned. The gleam in Reborn's eyes grew brighter and even more devious.

He suddenly pulled out a large rifle and aimed directly at Tsuna's forehead, "Don't test me," he said, menacingly, "In real life, I'm a trained assassin. I'm here to train you to become a mafia boss."

"Wh-What? What are talking about?" Reborn merely tapped the boy's forehead with his rifle.

"I was hired to teach you."

Tsuna let out his trademark 'HIIIIIIEEEEE', "A-are you insane!?"

Reborn's smirk grew wider, if possible, "Want me to prove it to you?"

The baby's finger barely brushed the trigger before a loud rumbling could be heard from his stomach. The rifle mysteriously disappeared and reborn walked out of the room saying, "But first, dinner."

Tsuna could only stare after him in disbelief. He then remembered that his best friend was still passed out on his floor and frantically went to revive her.

* * *

Nana was about to call Tsuna but saw her son walking down. "Tsu-kun, dinner's almost ready."

Tsuna shook his head, "No thanks Mom, I need to restock my supply of smelling salts for Chi," he mumbled, exhausted by the recent events caused by a possibly insane infant and his failure in waking up his friend, "And Mom, about that tutor-" Tsuna paused and gawked at the appearance of his 'tutor' at the dinner table.

"Mom! What's he still doing here!?" he shouted. Nana smiled.

"He'll be staying here until your grades improve!" Tsuna's mouth dropped.

"B-but what about Chi? I think she's doing just fine tutoring me!" he argued, strongly against giving up his study time with his best friend.

Nana sighed, "Tsu-kun, remember that Chi-chan is your best friend first before anything else, you can't always expect her to be tutoring you. And besides, she deserves a nice break, don't you think?"

Tsuna's shoulders slumped and he released a large, defeated sigh, "Wh-whatever, I'm going to the store and I'll call Auntie Makoto to come for Chi…"

* * *

The next morning had Chi twisting and turning, trying to hide her closed eyes from the bright morning sun.

"Ngh…hm?" she reluctantly opened her eyes halfway and realized she was facing her pillow, _'Huh? When did I get home?'_

Nonetheless, Chi had gotten dressed for another day at the evil institution most people would call a school.

'_I barely remember what happened yesterday…'_ she thought,_ 'What did we do after our homework…?'_

"Chi-sweetheart, is that you?" asked her mother from the kitchen.

"Yes, it's me," she replied quietly. Makoto turned the stove top off before holding Chi in a hug that could almost be called a deathgrip.

"Oh Sweetheart," Makoto sighed, "I got worried when Tsuna-kun told me you passed out yesterday," she explained, releasing her grip and holding her daughter's shoulders, looking at her worriedly, "Was it because of that new tutor Nana-chan hired? O-or were you just under a lot of stress?"

Chi let a small smile grace her pale lips, "I'm fine, Mom, just a little disoriented, that's all. Did Tsuna run out of smelling salts?"

Makoto nodded, "He called while he was out, sit down Chi, I'll get your breakfast."

Chi nodded and sat down at the table, covering her mouth as she yawned.

* * *

At Tsuna's house, Chi stood at the front door, her face ashen and body trembling.

"Just…stay calm, okay Chi?" said Tsuna, making a settling gesture with his hands. Chi slowly turned to face him.

"Explain. Please," she whimpered, her instincts shouting at her that the small baby in front of them was extremely dangerous.

After the explanation, Tsuna and Chi began walking towards Nami Middle surrounded by a tense air caused by the tiny tutor who was walking alongside them.

"U-um," stuttered Chi, "Sh-shouldn't…shouldn't you be in pre-school?"

"Assassins don't go to preschool," was his curt reply. Chi gulped and walked a bit closer to Tsuna. He then held her wrist and pulled her behind him.

"Will you just cut the act already?" he scolded. Chi shivered, feeling the agitation from Tsuna coming off in waves.

Suddenly, Tsuna quickly dragged himself and Chi around a corner. Hitting the back of her head against the brick wall, Chi was about to ask Tsuna what he was doing, but then saw someone out of the corner of her eye.

'_Eh? Sasagawa-san?'_ she thought, _'W-wait, where's Reborn-san?'_

"Oh, how cute!" Kyoko cooed at Reborn, who stood in front of her.

"Ciaossu," he greeted casually. Kyoko smiled.

"Why aren't you in school, little boy?"

"Because I'm in the mafia" he replied. Kyoko giggled. Chi found herself cringing at the sound, it was nothing like Nana's girlish laugh or her mother's gentle chuckles.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Tsuna and Chi stood behind the wall in complete disbelief.

'_Is she seriously buying it?' _they asked themselves incredulously.

"Good luck then!" said Kyoko and she walked away.

"Mafia guys always score," Reborn taunted, directing towards Tsuna, who was still hiding with Chi.

"Wh-wha-!" Tsuna replied angrily, but Reborn interrupted.

"You like her, don't you No-good Tsuna?"

"Th-that's none of your business! And how'd you learn that name?" Reborn smirked.

"I'm trained to read minds."

"Just leave us alone already!" Tsuna shouted.

"No can do," Reborn replied, "I told you, I'm here to train you to become a mafia boss."

"And I told you, you shouldn't lie!" Reborn smirked.

"Have you even told her how you felt?"

Chi felt a cold feeling engulf her stomach, she unconsciously grabbed at her shirt.

"Wha-who are you talking about?" stuttered Tsuna, his face becoming red…

"That girl, Sasagawa Kyoko, you have a crush on her don't you?" Reborn stated, "I bet you didn't tell her."

Tsuna sighed, his face a pale pink, "Of course not! Sasagawa Kyoko's the most popular girl in school! She probably doesn't even know I exist!"

"I'm sure that's not true, Tsuna," reassured Chi, feeling as if she had to force herself to say those words.

"Hmph, spoken like a true loser, No-good Tsuna," Reborn remarked rather harshly.

"Leave us alone," Tsuna spat. They started walking again until Chi stopped, hearing Reborn's sigh accompanied by a metallic 'click!'

"Guess it's time for me to do my thing…"

Tsuna and Chi turned around in confusion and were faced with the barrel of a gun. It moved directly in front of Tsuna.

Chi turned frozen stiff while Tsuna chuckled nervously, "That's a toy, right?"

Reborn smirked again, "You'll see…" he said, "When you die, you'll understand."

'_D-die?' _the two thought tensely.

_BANG!_

A small bullet hole marred Tsuna's forehead. Some blood flew out as his body fell to the ground.

'Tsu-Tsuna…?' Chi thought. She turned to face Reborn.

"Reborn-san," she asked, her tone vacant.

"Yes?" Reborn looked up and, unbeknownst to Chi, saw a faint ice-blue surround the edge of her irises.

"I know this is very impolite to say, but I want to smash your head into the ground until you are nothing but a pile of unrecognizable bloodied matter," she said, her voice holding a rather strange serious tone for the usually shy teen.

Reborn stared at Chi's eyes for another moment before responding, "Just wait."

Inside Chi's mind, she was fighting off the urge to hurt the small tutor in front of her and was feeling scared of the violent feelings that she would often direct at herself.

'_Don't hurt him, don't hurt him, don't hurt him…'_ she begged in her head. Her concentration was broken when she felt Reborn tug at her socks.

"You may want to see this," advised Reborn. Chi looked confused but turned her gaze towards Tsuna's motionless body being engulfed by a bright light.

His body twitched and he suddenly sprung up!

"REEEEBOOOOORN!" shouted Tsuna loudly, his clothes burst open and tore off leaving him only in his boxers, "CONFESS TO SASAGAWA KYOKO WITH MY DYING WILL!" and he ran off.

"Eh?...EEEH!" Chi exclaimed, blinking wildly as she couldn't believe what she just saw. Reborn took note that the blue color he saw disappeared.

Chi held her head and began to mumble quietly to herself, "Let's see, I'm pretty sure I have enough to buy a new uniform for Tsuna from the student store…G-Gah!"

"Reborn-san!" she shouted as she started running in the direction Tsuna had gone, "Wh-what did you do?"

He smirked from his position on her shoulder, "I'll explain once everything's calmed down, focus on getting to school."

She sighed.

* * *

Despite how fast Chi had been running, she was no match for Tsuna's newfound speed. Chi hunched over when she stopped near the school gate.

"Am…am I…t-too…late?" she panted. She stood straight and flinched when she saw students crowding the gate, all staring at the spectacle with amused and shocked expressions. Chi had no doubt that it was Tsuna and Kyoko in the middle.

"SASAGAWA KYOKO! PLEASE BE MY GIRLFRIEND!" Tsuna shouted.

And as anyone would do in Kyoko's position, she screamed and ran away, her friend, Kurokawa Hana, following behind her, throwing poor Tsuna a deadly glare over her shoulder.

The flame that had lit up his forehead had soon snuffed out and Tsuna's eyes had gone back to their normal chestnut brown. He blinked in confusion, looking at his surroundings.

"Wh-what's going on!?" he wailed, gripping his hair. The remaining students were all laughing and throwing sarcastic and rather rude comments at the boy in the boxers.

"What a freak!"

At that insult, Chi herself, felt insulted, _'Hey, I'm the freak, not Tsuna…'_ she grumbled in her thoughts. She ran towards her best friend, hoping to get him to the student store to buy a new uniform before the bell rang.

"Tsuna," she whispered, "Come on, we have to go…" she trailed off, noticing that she, Tsuna and Reborn were the only ones left standing in the courtyard.

"Uh-oh," they said.

"Herbivores."

They froze and slowly turned around. It was the Head of the Disciplinary Committee, Hibari Kyoya.

He was a menacing figure with short-medium length black hair and dark eyes, he stood a few feet away from the shaking pair, the black Nami Middle blazer fluttering ominously from his shoulders.

"You're both late," he stated lowly, bringing out a pair of steel tonfas, his signature weapon, "I'll bite the both of you to death."

Chi had held back the shriek that attempted to burst out of her throat, unlike Tsuna, who had decided to strain his vocal cords for the second time that day.

"HIEEEEEEEE!"

Chi cringed, she still wasn't used to very loud sounds.

Hibari narrowed his eyes in response.

Feeling the deadly aura surrounding the immediate area, Tsuna grabbed Chi's hand and quickly ran inside the school, trying to get as far away from the violent prefect as possible.

* * *

After school, the two were hanging out in Tsuna's room. They were sitting at the table, Chi was listening to Tsuna's groaning about what had transpired that morning.

"Aaaaaaagh!" Tsuna cried, tears prickling at his eyelids, "I can't believe that happened, and right in front of Kyoko-chan too!" He let out another heartbreaking groan before slumping backward and landing on the carpet. Chi sighed and gently patted the little sliver of stomach revealed when he fell back.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Tsuna," she replied softly.

Tsuna stared at her with teary eyes in disbelief, "How will it be fine? I committed one of the biggest acts of social suicide ever!" He put his hands on his face and slowly dragged them down, smearing his tears along his cheeks on the way.

Chi sighed worriedly, not liking it whenever Tsuna, or anyone actually, would cry. She took out a small packet of tissues from her school bag and wiped away at his cheeks, occasionally dabbing around his eyes.

"Heh," Reborn chuckled from his place on Tsuna's sheets, "You should be lucky you're still alive."

'_Of course Tsuna should feel lucky. He was only SHOT IN THE HEAD,'_ thought Chi sarcastically.

Tsuna scowled as he looked towards Reborn, "What was that thing anyway? Was it seriously a bullet?"

The tiny tutor smirked and held up a small shiny bullet, which compared to his hand appeared rather large, "This is called a 'Dying Will Bullet'."

Chi gave the bullet a closer look, "A 'Dying Will' bullet?"

Reborn nodded, "Anyone shot in the head with this will face death and be flooded with regrets of what he failed to accomplish."

Tsuna and Chi reeled back in shock.

_'That sounds horrible!'_ Chi thought with horror.

Reborn continued, "The bullet brings you back with enough power to achieve that one regret."

"A-and if I didn't have any regrets?" Tsuna asked warily.

"Well I AM an assassin," Reborn replied, rather bluntly.

"You mean I/he would've DIED!" the two shouted.

"Why do you think I said you were lucky?"

"Ugh…" Tsuna groaned again, "But I didn't want to confess to Kyoko-chan like thaaaaaat!"

"You wanted to confess to her before you died, so that's what you did."

Tsuna shot up and grabbed Reborn by the collar of his small suit, "Sh-shut up!"

The next thing Chi knew, Tsuna was flipped over and flinching in pain. And despite feeling a bit faint from seeing the movement, she helped Tsuna sit back up.

"Wh-what is this 'Dying Will' bullet? How come we've never heard of it?" she asked, her voice was shaky.

Reborn stood up straight, looking straight at Tsuna and Chi as they sat cross-legged on the floor, "The 'Dying Will' bullet is a secret passed down through the Vongola Family."

"'Vongola Family'?" they repeated. Reborn nodded.

"I was hired by my boss the Vongola Ninth to train you into becoming a mafia boss."

"Gah, why am I just buying this crazy story!" Tsuna yelled. Chi rubbed his shoulder to calm him down. Reborn ignored the outburst.

"The Ninth is getting on in age so he wants to find a suitable successor for the Tenth Generation," Reborn took out three photos, "Unfortuantely, Enrico, the leading candidate was shot and killed in a gunfight-"

"HIIIEEEE!"

The picture Reborn held up was of a young man lying on a cobblestone street with a bullet hole through the head and a bloody puddle forming beneath him. This was already too much for Chi and she ended up going into shock and passing out on Tsuna's floor.

Her last thought before blacking out was,_ 'I have a feeling I'm going to be fainting a lot more than I usually do…'_

* * *

Late in the evening, after Tsuna and Chi had decided to have an impromptu sleepover and had gone to bed, Reborn stepped outside to make a call.

_Ring Ring Ri-Click_

"What is it, Reborn?" asked the voice from the other end.

"I found one," he answered.

"What?" asked the person, in surprise.

"It's true, she's with the Vongola Tenth candidate."

"And you want me to come and train her?"

"Of course, you're the only other one I know who's like her."

"No, I'm not going to do it, first of all, if she's close to the candidate, I'm going to assume she's a middle school student, and second, she's a girl."

"And? What's wrong with that?"

"I'm not going to train a child into becoming a murderer!" the person shouted, "I'm not like _you_!"

Reborn ignored the insult, "There's a difference between killing and protecting."

"This is the Mafia, Reborn, if those two get involved, they _will_ eventually kill people, I'm not going to watch children become cold-hearted murderers!" the person explained.

Reborn sighed, "I didn't want to do this, but you're not really giving me a choice…You owe me."

The person stayed silent for a long moment. Then, "_Fine_, I'll do it. But I'm only teaching her self-defense."

"Good, I'll see you soon, Michael."

_Click_


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, after Tsuna and Chi helped each other get ready for the day, they discussed the information that Chi missed out on when she had fainted.

"Okay, so…the three top candidates were kicked out of the running because they all died horrible deaths and you're the next one up because you're a direct descendant of the Vongola Family's founder, Vongola Primo?" she summarized, feeling dizzy.

Tsuna nodded begrudgingly in response, "Couldn't they find some else who's actually willing to take over the family? 'Cause I don't want it!"

Chi hummed thoughtfully, "I find it a bit hard to believe that they couldn't find descendants of the other previous bosses, I mean…there were eight other ones after the first…"

Tsuna hung his head, "It's because life hates me, that's why…"

"Oh, Tsuna," Chi hurriedly walked over to him and rubbed his back, "I-I'm sure th-that's not the case!"

He sighed heavily, "Let's just get this day over with…"

* * *

Just outside the classroom, Tsuna and Chi were standing close together, the backs of their hands barely touching.

"What should I do?" Tsuna whispered, "They're all gonna make fun of me for yesterday…And Kyoko-chan! What am I gonna do when I see her?"

Chi looked at Tsuna worriedly, then quickly held on to his hand. Tsuna, in response, squeezed tightly.

They stood outside quietly, hesitant to open the classroom door that would inevitably break the morning silence.

"I think," Chi murmured, "that it'd be best to get this over with as soon as possible."

"They'll laugh at us!" Tsuna argued. Chi let out a shaky sigh.

"True, and as much as I'd like to go straight home and live under a rock for a decade or two," she replied, "If we go in, then we know we didn't run away from their bullying…for once."

Tsuna sighed, "O…okay…"

They squeezed each others' hands tightly one more time before letting go and opening the door to their hell.

"Hey look! Underpants Man is here!"

"'Please be my girlfriend!'"

"Hahahahahaha! Better start praying, Mochida-sempai saw everything!"

"I heard she totally shut you down!"

"And I bet the freak was just off hiding behind a wall!"

"Hah! Some friend she is huh?"

"Well those two aren't 'No-good' for nothing!"

And that was just within the first five minutes. Chi looked over at Tsuna, who looked as pale as she was who was internally freaking out about all the people laughing and pointing at them. Chi could almost hear his thoughts.

_'They all know!'_

They turned to go out into the hallway, but were, unfortunately and quickly, surrounded by both under and upperclassmen alike, laughing and mocking the two.

Chi swallowed and starting trembling. She felt like throwing up. There were far too many people there than what she was comfortable with.

'_There's too many people, there's too many people, there'stoomanypeople-!'_ Her jumbled thoughts were interrupted when some members of the kendo club had ran up and grabbed Tsuna, dragging him away.

"You can't leave just yet!" One of them shouted.

"Yeah, Mochida's waiting for you in the dojo!"

'_Mochida-sempai?'_ Chi thought, _'Is this for yesterday?'_

Painfully forcing away her aversion to bodily contact, Chi maneuvered her way through the crowd of students and ran to where Tsuna was being taken, ignoring the many female students gossiping and gushing over Mochida's so-called 'act of love'.

By the time Chi had reached the dojo, there was already a large crowd surrounding her best friend and the school's kendo captain, Mochida.

Due to his popularity and the strong arrogant air surrounding him, Mochida was one of the people in the top of Chi's list of terrifying people, thus Chi made sure to steer clear of him whenever possible.

Unfortunately, Mochida had Sawada Tsunayoshi, her best friend, in his grasp.

"There you are you perverted stalker!" he shouted, gripping the handle of his bamboo sword tightly.

'_Perverted stalker?' _thought Chi, _'Well…that's kinda true, but still, it isn't nice to shout that…'_

"God might forgive scum like you, but I, Mochida, will not!" he continued, "You will be punished!"

"B-but!" Tsuna tried defending himself, but was interrupted.

"The challenge is as follows!" Mochida shouted, "If you can land a hit on me in ten minutes you win, if you can't, I'll be champion!"

'_But, he's the captain, this is already unfair!'_ Chi thought, upset.

"The prize of course," he thrust his hand behind him, revealing Sasagawa Kyoko and her friend, Kurokawa Hana, "Is Sasagawa Kyoko!"

Chi felt her eye twitch, _'Even though I don't like her very much, she still shouldn't be treated like property, I thought Japan was already past that…'_

Chi saw Mochida turn to his team and felt a strong tug on her arm and found herself speeding down an empty hallway behind a nervous Tsuna.

"Tsuna? You got away?" she asked, matching his pace as he slowed down. Tsuna nodded, a frown forming on his face.

"I asked them to let me go to the bathroom," he replied. Chi gave him a blank stare.

"Tsuna, it doesn't matter how long we've been friends or how many times we took a bath together, I'm not watching you-" Tsuna began spluttering.

"I'm not going to do that!" he retorted, blushing, "I'm gonna run away."

She sighed. Though running away was their common response to many incidents at school, Chi knew that if Tsuna ran away today, the pranks and bruises would never end.

"Tsuna, if you run away, the other students will only treat you worse," she warned, "I don't want them to start torturing you more."

"What more can they do?" Tsuna mumbled, "Can't be any worse then putting ink and tacks in our shoes or beating us up after school."

Chi froze. Memories of being sent to the hospital after some particularly violent beatings came rushing back. She didn't realize her body was shaking until Tsuna squeezed her hand.

"Sorry…I didn't mean to…" Chi shook her head.

"It's fine," she said, "But they'll find worse ways to treat us, Tsuna…"

Suddenly, the two felt something wrap around their ankles pull up, causing them to hang upside down. Fortunately, Chi was quick enough to hold her skirt so she wouldn't be flashing anyone.

"Wh-what's going on!" Tsuna shouted.

"Ciaossu."

"Reborn!" shouted Tsuna angrily, vaguely aware that Chi was freezing up next to him, "What are you doing here!"

Reborn was holding the other end of the rope holding up the two, "I've been watching you to make sure you were conducting yourself like a real mafia boss. It'll be troublesome, but don't worry about it, you and I have a relationship."

"What relationship?"

Reborn smirked.

"A relationship," Reborn took out a gun, seeing ice blue bleed into Chi's eyes, "between an assassin and his target."

_Bang!_

* * *

"I'LL SCORE A POINT WITH MY DYING WILL!"

…was the first thing Chi heard when she snapped out of her daze. She felt herself being dragged back to the dojo and unceremoniously dropped off at the entrance before Tsuna had confronted Mochida in his 'Dying Will' Mode.

'_Oh dear,'_ she lamented, rubbing away the pain in the back of her head.

"RAAAAAAAAAGH! Let's fight!" he shouted. Various female screams and the occasional insult about Tsuna's attire were heard throughout the room. Two of the kendo members were struggling to give Tsuna pieces of the kendo armor which seemed suspiciously heavy, but paid them no attention and headed straight for Mochida, who burst out laughing.

"Pfft! Hahahahaha! Are you seriously thinking of fighting me like that?" He raised his bamboo sword and brought it down as Tsuna got closer, "Don't think I'll go easy on you!"

The sword hit Tsuna right on the forehead.

'_Ah! Tsuna!'_ Chi cried mentally. Tsuna appeared not to notice and smashed his forehead against Mochida, who fell back in both pain and surprise. He then sat on Mochida's stomach.

'_W-wait, what's he doing?' _Chi slipped through the crowd, shaking among the way because of all the physical contact. When she got to the front Tsuna had torn off a handful of Mochida's hair.

'_Oh my,'_ Chi thought.

"SCORE! 100 POINTS!" Tsuna yelled sticking his hair-filled fist up in the air. The room went silent before cheers erupted, amused and proud shouts of Tsuna's 'strategy' on winning the challenge was heard throughout the crowd.

Chi just stared ahead in disbelief.

'_Who knew Tsuna would be strong enough to pull off a handful of hair?'_ she started to rub her forehead, feeling anxiety build up from all the loud noise.

"HOW'S THIS!" Tsuna shouted, the scorekeeper was frozen stiff in shock, "NOT ENOUGH!" Tsuna turned back to Mochida and began tearing off the rest of his hair until all that was left was his scalp.

"I WIN!" Tsuna held up a pile of Mochida's hair to the scorekeeper who quickly, and shakily, held up a red flag signaling Tsuna's win. The room went still, staring at their classmate's prone form, and Chi took the chance to run up to Tsuna, who calmed down from his 'Dying Will' mode.

"Tsuna," she whispered, intending to take him to the student store for a replacement uniform, but the room began cheering again. Everyone crowded around them and Chi clung to Tsuna's wrist, frozen in fear of the amount of people surrounding them.

Kyoko walked up to Tsuna, "I'm sorry for running away yesterday," she let out a small giggle, "My friends are always telling me I don't know when to laugh."

'_So she thought his confession was a joke?' _thought Chi, a tad upset, _'If I wasn't so scared of her, I'd probably be giving her a nice long lecture about not hurting someone's feelings, especially if it concerns MY BEST FRIEND!'_

"That was really awesome, Sawada-kun! You're no ordinary guy!" she giggled again.

'_Hm?'_ Chi thought, not noticing her hands clenching into fists, _'This is weird, I've never felt irritated from someone's giggling before…'_

* * *

After school Tsuna and Chi decided to hang out at Tsuna's house since their mothers were out grocery shopping.

"I can't believe it!" Tsuna cheered, "I actually became friends with Kyoko-chan!"

"And all because of a baby tutor and a bullet…" said Chi. Tsuna stopped cheering and looked thoughtful.

"Huh, you're right," Tsuna remarked quietly, "Everything he does is crazy and completely unnecessary, but if it weren't for him, none of this would've happened…"

The two ran up to his room expecting to find Reborn. Which they did, unfortunately there was a trip-wire near a sleeping Reborn and it set off an explosion.

'_Nothing is going to be normal after today, will it?'_ Chi thought sadly.

That evening, Reborn was making another call.

_Ring Ring Ri-Click_

"What is it, Reborn?"

"I thought you'd be here by now, Michael," Reborn scolded teasingly. Michael sighed in frustration.

"You know I can't leave on short notice," he said, "...and you know how bad his temper is."

"I thought he'd give you some leeway since you're his elder."

"I'm only a year older than him," Michael explained, "And also, after I told him I had to leave, he threw a pile of missions at me, so don't expect me to come by anytime soon."

Reborn smirked, "Throwing a tantrum is he?"

Michael sighed, "Whatever, I'll call you when my schedule's free."

_Click_


	7. Chapter 7

A few days after the duo met Reborn, they've noticed things have changed drastically.

Tsuna had begun to wake up earlier (mainly due to Reborn using his array of weapons and traps, but still…), the students at school had been calling Tsuna names less and less and Chi had quickly fallen off the radar.

Which was good for her, Chi preferred not to be noticed or stared at by anyone, except when the teacher called roll.

There was still a downside though.

Due to the Mochida Incident, there was a sudden boost of popularity for Tsuna and on this particular day, Tsuna had received an unusual request.

"Please! You have to help us!" a student begged Tsuna. His hands were held together like he was praying and he was bowing.

Tsuna, still unused to all the attention, was stuttering and blushing and tripping over his words.

"Bu-but, why me?!" he cried. The student stood up and began to explain.

"Please, Sawada-kun! We're missing a member and the tournament is today!" the student pleaded, "With your skill, we would definitely win! Please, we're desperate!"

'_Well, since he's asking the boy who used to be known as 'no-good', not even a week ago…'_ Chi thought.

The tournament in question was the volleyball tournament. The problem with this was Tsuna had never played volleyball before, and neither had Chi.

"O-okay…" Tsuna answered, "I guess…I can play."

"Really?" the student shouted, "That's great! With the guy who beat Mochida-sempai on our side, the other team's got no chance!" The student bowed again before running off to tell the team.

Tsuna was trying to ignore the shocked Chi next to him, but to no avail.

"Tsuna…" she said in a worried tone.

"It'll be fine!" he tried reassuring her, "If Reborn uses the Dying Will Bullet on me then I've got nothing to worry about!"

Chi let out a quiet, but harsh sigh, "You may have nothing to worry about, but I certainly do…what if it doesn't work? The team would get really disappointed and they'd start calling you, 'no-good' again!"

"It'll be fine, Chi!" he stressed, "You don't have to worry about me ALL the time y'know?" He held out a hand for her, ready to lead her to the classroom where the team was.

"And yet you give me so many reasons to," she glared slightly, which probably looked more like a pout, and gave in.

* * *

Chi waited outside the classroom since the team was changing. The door opened and a few members walked out. She could hear one of them calling out to Tsuna inside.

"Come on, Sawada, let's get going!" he called.

"You guys go ahead, I'll be there in a sec," Tsuna replied.

After the team vacated the hall, Tsuna grabbed Chi's hand and we went searching for the tiny tutor.

"Reborn said he'd be keeping his eye on me so he should be here somewhere…" Tsuna muttered. They looked through various classrooms when finally Tsuna and Chi caught the smell of caffeine emanating from a small emergency cabinet in the hallway. When they got close enough, the cabinet slammed open.

The loud noise quickly knocked out the unsuspecting Chi, who fainted and fell back on the floor.

"Ch-Chi!" Tsuna cried, he turned to glare at the tutor who had a knowing smile on his face, "R-Reborn! What are you doing?!"

Reborn took a sip from a small mug, "This is one of the hideouts I set up around the school."

"N-nevermind that!" Tsuna shouted, "You have to shoot me with the Dying Will Bullet!"

Reborn was refilling his cup, "I can shoot you, but you'll die."

Tsuna was in shock, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Since you'd be expecting me to shoot you, you'd have no regrets," Reborn explained, "No regrets, no second chance. You'd end up being killed by yours truly."

"Aaagh!" Tsuna cried, "Chi was right! Now what do I do?! Everyone's gonna hate me!"

"Still wanna try it?" Reborn held up his gun to Tsuna's forehead.

"Nononono! I changed my mind!" the boy yelled.

"Good luck then," Reborn shut to cabinet.

Feeling depression creeping up on him, Tsuna woke up Chi and began explaining his predicament.

"Chi…what am I gonna do…" Tsuna was slouched and his eyes were blurry.

Chi sighed quietly, ignoring the urge to say, 'I told you so', "We should just get it over with, if you don't show up people would think you ran away."

Tsuna groaned, "F-fine, let's go…"

* * *

So they went to front of the gym, awaiting Tsuna's fate. He squeezed Chi's hand tightly one more time and they both opened the doors. Everyone was cheering him on and some were even waving banners.

"This is kind of over the top…" she whispered to the shocked spiky-haired boy next to her.

Somewhere beyond the crowd, unnoticed by all, stood a shadowed figure, holding a cigarette in it's mouth.

"So he's the candidate, huh?" the figure muttered.

Chi felt a shiver run down her spine and looked around the gym. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Chi whispered, "Good luck Tsuna,"

He nodded and walked toward the waiting team.

Against her better judgment, Chi decided to stand in front of the crowd, to make sure she would be able to get to Tsuna quickly if he were to get seriously hurt. Off to the side, Chi saw Sasagawa Kyoko with her friends.

'_So she's here too…hm?'_ Chi blinked, _'…Why do I feel…angry?'_

The match began and almost immediately Tsuna was hit in the stomach with the ball.

Chi winced, knowing almost exactly how that felt.

Unfortunately, the game kept going on with Tsuna being smacked about every fifteen seconds. Yes, she was counting.

Ten minutes into the game was when the captain had finally called for a time-out. Everyone was mumbling and grumbling about Tsuna's dismal performance. Chi snuck her way around so she could get close to the team and see how her friend was doing.

"Sawada! Are you even trying?!"

"Get it together!"

"Come on! We're all trying our best you know!"

"Don't tell me you're "No-good Tsuna" after all!"

Chi shrunk back a bit, _'Harsh…'_

_Fweet!_

The referee blew the whistle that signaled the end of the first set. Tsuna looked around the gym and saw Chi nearby. He walked over and grabbed her hand before walking out.

"Tsuna," she asked, "What's going on?"

He sighed, "I told them that my ankle was sprained from fighting Mochida-sempai, so they let me go to the infirmary…"

She bit her lip, "Please tell me you noticed that the rest of the team was all covered in their own injuries…"

Tsuna nodded, "Y-yeah, I noticed," He replied quietly, "I remembered the captain saying that they were desperate…"

They got outside and stopped at the fountain for Tsuna to wash his face.

"If you run now, everyone's going to lose faith in you, Sasagawa-san too…" Chi rubbed his back. She heard quiet footsteps coming from behind them.

"Aren't you going home?" It was Reborn. Tsuna let out a harsh breath.

"No."

When they got back to gym, Tsuna went straight to the team, resolve strong in his eyes.

Chi looked on worriedly but a glare had hit her eyes. She looked up and saw Reborn leaning over a railing from the second floor of the gym.

He was holding a sniper rifle and aimed it at Tsuna.

She couldn't clearly see what the tutor was holding due to the glare from the gun, but she heard a faint gunshot followed by Tsuna's pained cries.

'_Tsuna?'_ Chi flinched.

"Sawada?"

"Hey, Sawada, what's wrong?"

"Sawada it's coming for you! Get it!"

"Okay!" Tsuna shouted and jumped…

'_Ah…'_ Chi paled, _'So…That's what happened…'_

* * *

"A 'Jump Shot'?" asked Chi.

It was after school and Reborn had Chi go to Tsuna's house so he could explain what happened during the tournament.

Reborn nodded, "The effect of the Dying Will Bullet changes depending on where it hits."

"How many other effects does it have?" asked Tsuna.

"The same number as parts of the body, of course," Reborn replied.

'_Huh, that's a pretty versatile bullet…is that what makes this 'Vongola Family' a famous mafia family…? Ah!'_ Chi shook her head, _'Wh-what am I thinking!?'_

"Why didn't you tell us about this before, Reborn?" Tsuna exclaimed.

"Because I didn't want you to depend on the bullet to solve all your problems," Reborn replied, "But after today, I suppose I don't have to worry so much anymore."

'_So there is a method to his madness…'_ thought Chi.

"Since you know," Reborn-san pulled out a large silver briefcase and picked up a large gun, "Now I can shoot you any time I want," he said with a large smirk.

"Eh…EH!?" shouted Tsuna and Chi.

* * *

The next morning, Tsuna's and Chi's class was all abuzz. There was a rumor that their class was going to receive a foreign student that day.

"A foreign student?" Tsuna asked. Chi nodded, running through all the information she had overheard from the other students.

"No one knows for sure if it's going to be a girl or boy yet," she divulged, then she shivered, "The others were thinking about how the student would look like…th-they were…very…descriptive…" she shivered again with Tsuna patting her head.

"If only someone invented mind bleach, huh?" he joked. Chi moaned pitifully. Their conversation was ended when their teacher had stepped in.

"Good morning, everyone!" said the teacher.

"Good morning, sensei!" the students had all greeted back.

"Now I know you've all heard that our class will be receiving another student, so I'll just go ahead and bring him in," the teacher went to slide open the door and lead the student to the front, "Everyone, this is Gokudera Hayato, who has returned from studying in Italy, I expect everyone to be courteous as Gokudera-kun gets used to being back in Japan."

"Yes, sensei," they replied.

The student, Gokudera Hayato, had short silver hair that spiked out a bit at the ends complimented by sharp emerald green eyes. He wore the boys' white uniform shirt unbuttoned and had a black shirt underneath. He also wore the boys' uniform pants with two belts wrapped around his waist, silver chains hung off the pants' loops and silver necklaces adorned his neck. The entire outfit gave him a very punk-like appearance, and with the heavy glare in his eyes, Chi had put him very high on her list of scary people.

However, the other students thought differently.

"Wah~ he's so hot~!"

"And he studied abroad~!"

"Would you look at those eyes~!"

"They're gorgeous~!"

"Those hips~!"

Those were only a few of the outbursts from the female student body in the class. Some were just content to stop and stare as in the case of Sasgawa Kyoko, much to the distain of Tsuna.

"Even she thinks he's attractive!" Tsuna whispered to Chi, who was frozen still.

"Alright, now you're seat will be…ah! Gokudera-kun!" the teacher shouted. Gokudera was stalking towards Tsuna's desk and kicked it over without any warning.

"Aaah!" Tsuna screamed, then Gokudera went on his way to an empty seat in the back.

"…" Chi tried to speak, but her vocal cords didn't want to cooperate.

Other students, actually only the female students had found Gokudera's actions as something to fawn over.

"Ahh~ He's so cool~!"

"His scary side's making me blush~!"

Hearing this, Tsuna and Chi had deadpanned, only seeing the new student as scary. And as expected, Chi had fainted from the early morning excitement.

The teacher sighed wearily, "Sawada-kun, could you please take Mifune-kun to the nurse, _again_?" he stressed.

Tsuna nodded and picked up the passed out Chi, making sure not to jostle her too much.

"Honestly," continued the teacher, "that girl is such a nuisance…"

The rest of the class had only laughed mockingly, with the exception two students, Gokudera, who had grumbled, and a certain baseball fanatic, who wasn't listening and stared the classroom doors the two had gone through.

In the hallway, Tsuna was carrying Chi on his back, "A 'nuisance'…it's not like she begged people to make our lives a living hell…"

He looked at his best friend's unconscious face. It was paler than it usually was, and it had a very light green hue, it was likely that Chi would be emptying the contents of her stomach when she woke up.

Tsuna sighed, a fainting Chi was an unfortunate common occurrence, as was the vomiting. She never did have the strongest of stomachs.

* * *

Later in the day, Chi had woken up in the nurse's office.

'_Ugh, my head…'_ she groaned internally, _'What time is it? Huh? I-It's after school!' _

She shot out of the bed and feeling a disruption in her stomach, made a quick trip to the restroom, then ran out of the office wiping her mouth with a tissue, trying to find her best friend. She had quickly gotten out of the school to avoid any students who had stayed after class. She wasn't in the mood to get beaten and thrown into a broom closet for what she believed was probably the fourteenth time that month.

'_TSUNA! WHERE ARE YOU-Oh there you are…'_ she thought, catching a glimpse of Tsuna's spiky hair in the area on a side of the school building. He was standing nervously in front of Gokudera, who seemed ready to spill some blood.

"Tsu-Tsuna! R-Reborn-san!" she shouted weakly, her stomach still a bit upset. She ran towards the two, intending to shield Tsuna if Gokudera were to attack.

"Chi!" Tsuna exclaimed in surprise, "Sh-should you even be walking around right now?"

"Forget me!" she said, "Why does Gokudera-san look ready to eat you alive?"

"You stay out of this, Woman!" Gokudera yelled, "This doesn't concern you!"

Chi forced down the bile that was quickly making its way up her throat, "I-If you're p-planning to h-hurt Tsuna, th-then y-you'll j-just ha-have to k-kill me f-first!"

She swallowed thickly, but stood in front of her best friend, trembling all the while and straining her neck to stare right into annoyed emerald.

"Chi…" Tsuna moved to hold her shoulder, but Chi had stopped him.

"If you touch me right now, Tsuna I don't think I can hold down anything," she warned, Tsuna automatically stepped back.

Reborn and Gokudera quietly took note of the ice blue in the edges of the girl's eyes.

"What the hell…" whispered Gokudera, he shook his head and spoke up, "Whatever! Prepare to die!" He took out two handfuls of dynamite and readied them, quickly lighting the wicks with the lit cigarette hanging from his lips.

Chi threw out an arm, trying to push Tsuna behind her but instead, Tsuna had pushed himself and Chi out of the way.

_BOOM!_

Tsuna and Chi waved away the dust surrounding them, coughing to expel whatever was caught in their throats.

"Double Bomb!" shouted Gokudera, and as the name stated, twice the amount of dynamite had been thrown at the two, causing them to avoid as much of the lit sticks as possible.

"Reborn-san!" Chi coughed, "Wh-who is he?"

"Gokudera Hayato, or 'Smokin' Bomb Hayato'," explained Reborn, "He's an explosives expert who keeps dynamite hidden all over his body," he looked at Tsuna, "And I expect you to fight him."

"What!" cried Tsuna, clearly upset, "No way! I like living, thank you very much!"

"Too bad," said Reborn, pointing his gun at the boy, "Fight like your life depends on it."

Once more, a bullet lodged itself in Tsuna's forehead.

"REBOOOOORRRRN!" he shouted, bursting out of his clothes, "PUT OUT THE BOMBS WITH MY DYING WILL!"

Tsuna then started jumping around, grabbing onto the wicks. Chi, deciding that it was best to stay out of the line of fire, stood frozen in shock and worry, the blue disappearing from her eyes.

"I hope I have supplies for burns…" she murmured. Feeling a weight on her shoulder, Chi looked to the side and let out a small shriek at seeing Reborn, "Ah, Re-Reborn-san…" she asked hesitantly, "I-I'm a bit c-confused about wh-what's going o-on…c-could you p-perhaps e-e-explain…?"

"He's here to eliminate No-good Tsuna and try to take his place as a Boss candidate," Reborn answered.

"Huh?" Chi replied nervously. Quickly becoming frustrated, Gokudera had taken out even more bombs and was prepared to throw them.

"Triple Bombs!" he shouted, unfortunately one stick fell from the bunch he held in his hands. Distracted, Gokudera lost his grip and all the dynamite that, at this point, were all lit, "C-crap…!"

"G-Gokudera-san!" gasped Chi.

Fortunately, Tsuna was still jumping around and grabbing at the lit wicks of the dynamite and continued to extinguish all the bombs in quick succession. Grabbing the last one, the flame on Tsuna's forehead died away.

Chi ran towards them, carrying her trusty first-aid kit, "A-are you two alright?"

"AMAZING!" shouted Gokudera, his cigarette falling to the ground.

"Huh?" Chi replied once more.

"EH?" Tsuna exclaimed in disbelief. Gokudera got down on his knees and bowed.

"That was AMAZING! You're definitely worthy of the role of the Vongola Tenth!" He then sat up, admiration written all over his features, "I'll be proud to serve you Boss!"

"WHAT!" cried Tsuna and Chi, their mouths open wide in shock. Reborn, who was still seated comfortably on the girl's shoulder, was kind enough to close her mouth.

"What do you mean by, 'serve me'!" shouted Tsuna, tugging at his hair, forgetting that he's still in his boxers.

"The loser serves the winner for life," Reborn explained, "It's a Vongola tradition."

"But isn't slavery illegal?" Chi asked. Reborn smacked the back of her head causing her to flinch.

"Quiet, Mifune," he said shortly.

"I-I'm sorry..." she mumbled, rubbing her head.

"I never really intended to take the spot for Vongola Tenth," Gokudera said, "I had heard that one of the candidates was someone my age, so I had to come and test your skills, and I was more than impressed!"

He then bowed his head, "In return for you risking your life for mine, my life is yours!"

Tsuna, however, quickly refused, "Y-your 'life'? I-isn't that a little extreme?" he asked shakily.

"Absolutely not!" Gokudera answered seriously.

Averting her eyes to avoid Gokudera's intense stare, Chi noticed small splatters of blood against the debris. Alarmed, Chi immediately looked at Tsuna and Gokudera. Spotting darkening bruises and cuts, she let out a scream.

"AAAHHH!" The others looked at her in shock, not expecting the quiet girl to make such a loud noise.

"Ch-Chi, what's wrong?" Tsuna asked, walking up to and lifting a hand, making a motion like he was trying to hold her shoulder.

"B-b-blood-b-bruises!" she managed to say, her throat hurting after the sudden scream she made.

"Tch," Gokudera scoffed, "Is that all? I can handle a few scrapes."

"I-I'm not willing to r-risk them getting i-infected!" Chi argued. She ran over with her trusty kit and started to gently rub at the visible cuts along Gokudera's arm with a cotton ball dabbed in alcohol. The silver-haired boy just scoffed and turned away to hide his pink cheeks due to the short girl's sudden closeness.

"Well done, No-good Tsuna," Reborn complimented, "You've gained a follower."

Tsuna glared at the small tutor still sitting on my shoulder, "B-but I don't want a follower!"

"Huh?" a voice said. Tsuna and Chi froze, "Hey brats, don't you know that only third years are allowed to ditch?"

Chi swallowed thickly and forced herself to turn her head just enough so that she could see who was there.

It was a group of three third-years, they were smirking and jeering while walking closer to the Tsuna, Gokudera and Chi.

"Looks like we better teach them a lesson, huh?" one threatened and looked at a trembling Chi, "Just like last time, right Freak?"

Chi whimpered and promptly fainted. Tsuna was quick to catch her.

"Tch," Gokudera growled, he took out two handfuls of dynamite and started stalking towards the older students, "I'll take care of them, Tenth…"

"E-EH! W-wait!" Tsuna cried, trying to carry the unconscious Chi.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Chi found herself trying to calm an achy stomach.

Their teacher, Nezu-sensei was walking around passing back their science tests. It's normal for students to be worried about their test scores, but this is different.

There's a reason why the students call Tsuna, 'No-good' and Chi, 'useless'.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," announced Nezu-sensei, stopping next to Tsuna's desk, "Let's suppose that there is a student who consistently scores in the 20s and pulls the class average down…"

"E-excuse me?" Tsuna asked quietly.

He adjusted his glasses before continuing, "As one with an elite academic background, I would conjecture that this student is nothing more than a burden to a society that puts a great emphasis on education."

"Is there any reason for such trash to exist?" he asked snidely. The other students began laughing.

"I saw it!"

"Ha! A 26!"

"Guess he's still a loser!"

Chi, who was sitting behind Tsuna, saw the boy sink into his seat. She gulped sliently when their teacher came up to her desk.

"Mifune Chi."

She flinched.

"Let's suppose that there is a student who once scored in the 80s then quickly fell to the low 50s…" he said, "I would say that this rapid decline in grades would be the result of this student spending too much time around those of low intelligence and should reconsider her taste in friends…"

Feeling a rush of adrenaline and anger, Chi immediately stood up, a thin ring of ice blue appearing in her irises and slammed her hands on top of her desk.

"I will not stop being friends with Tsuna just because my grades are low!" she shouted, her throat beginning to feel raw.

"Chi…" she heard Tsuna murmur quietly.

Feeling all eyes upon her, Chi felt her body go cold along with the familiar urge to break down in tears and vomit then and there. She didn't regret saying what she said, never would she feel that way. But in that moment, she couldn't help but sit back down in her seat and wrap her arms around her waist, bend over her desk, and let her hair hide her face as the ring in her eyes slowly disappeared.

Still feeling the numerous gazes from the class, Chi's shoulders began to shake and tears had begun to overflow.

"Hey she's crying!" a student exclaimed crudely. Many of the students had broke out in mocking snickers and sneers.

"Hahaha! Did you see? She got a 48!"

"Serves her right!"

"Guess being a bookworm doesn't always mean you're smart!"

"She's such a _freak_!"

"What a weirdo!"

Tsuna clenched his hand into a fist, wanting to get up and drag both him and his best friend out of the room, but then amidst the jeers, the classroom door slammed open. Tsuna and Chi turned their heads to look and saw Gokudera standing in the hallway.

"Gokudera-kun…?" Tsuna murmured, Chi wiped her eyes with a tissue hidden in her skirt pocket.

"Hey!" Nezu-sensei shouted, "You're tardy!"

Gokudera glared back, "What?" he growled.

"Urk!" he flinched, "…J-just sit down…"

The students began to murmur to each other while the silver-haired teen walked towards Tsuna's desk.

"Whoa, he scared Nezu-sensei…"

"Didn't you hear? Gokudera beat up those third-years yesterday all by himself!"

"Good morning Boss!" Gokudera yelled.

'_Eh!?'_ Tsuna and Chi thought.

The murmuring became louder.

"What the…?"

"Are they friends?"

"No way, No-good Tsuna probably just latched onto the new guy."

"Man, what a scaredy-cat…"

Tsuna began to protest, "N-no, i-it-it's not like that!"

Nezu-sensei then sighed, pushing his glasses, ""Let us again suppose, that there is a student who's always tardy and this student is without a doubt, friends with a student with terrible test scores and a student who fell out of her teachers' good graces…"

'_The librarian and nurse still like me…'_ thought Chi, sniffling.

"…Why?" their teacher continued, "Because, as they say, birds of a feather flock together, of course."

"Tch!" Gokudera scoffed, "Listen up old man," he grabbed Nezu-sensei by the collar with his still bandaged arm, and picked him up, "No one gets away with insulting Sawada Tsunayoshi, the tenth boss of the Vongola!"

Tsuna clutched at his hair, while behind him, Chi was beginning to feel left out.

_'No problem, I didn't have any pride to defend, nope,'_ she thought.

"I-I said, 'S-suppose'! It was only a thought exercise!" shouted their teacher nervously. Gokudera looked back in Tsuna's direction, grinning.

"Hey Boss! You want me to finish this guy off?"

Chi could tell Tsuna was groaning loudly in his head. She rubbed his shoulder to help calm him down.

* * *

The three were quickly taken to the principal's office where Nezu-sensei was ranting and raving.

"P-Principal! I demand that these three be expelled immediately!" he shouted.

"Nezu-sensei, please calm down," the principal said.

"I will not calm down until these-these criminals get what they deserve!" Nezu-sensei's face was turning a darker red.

"Now, now," the principal said, "I think you're being a bit hasty here…"

"So you want to give them a second chance?" Nezu-sensei smirked, "Then why don't we have them dig up the time capsule from 15 years ago?"

"Eh? The time capsule?"

"Yes," he said, "As I recall, we hired a company to dig it up, if we just have these three find it, if they can't, then we can expel them immediately."

"Hm," the principal replied hesitantly, "…I don't see why not…"

The three were then released and were now walking down the hall. Chi's mind was filled with a whirlwind of worries.

'_Bullying, I can handle that. Beatings, I can handle that. Hospital visits because of said beatings, I can handle that too. But, expulsion?'_ Chi bit her lip, _'Mom is worried enough about my social anxiety and how dad's doing, I can't give her another thing to worry over…'_

She pressed her arms against her stomach and pushed down the urge to throw up.

Next to her, Tsuna was voicing his thoughts.

"I can't believe this," Tsuna moaned, "I don't want to be expelled! I won't be able to see Kyoko-chan anymore!"

"Tsuna," said Chi, "If you don't want to be expelled, then all we have to do is look for the 15-year-old time capsule, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Tsuna relented, "But with our luck, I doubt we'll be able to find it…"

"Giving up so easily just because of a time capsule? Guess you're still a loser," said a familiar voice.

"Hm? Who said that?" Chi looked around for the source.

"Reborn…?" Tsuna whipped his head around and both their gazes landed on the emergency fire cabinet in the hallway. A small latch opened and they were able to see inside.

"EH?" They shouted.

"Y-you shrank!" Tsuna yelled, "What happened to you?"

A tongue shot out of the tiny Reborn and hit Tsuna in the eye.

"GYAAAAH!"

"Ah! Tsuna, are you okay?"

"Seems you've met Leon," The tiny Reborn clone changed into a small chameleon and jumped onto the brim of Reborn's fedora, who had opened the larger compartment of the cabinet, "He's a shape-shifting chameleon, he also keeps a low profile, so I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't notice him earlier."

"I noticed him!" Tsuna argued.

"A-A shape-shifting chameleon…huh," Chi looked at the small lizard who stared back with his big reptile-like eyes, "Um…h-hello, Leon-san…"

He blinked, his large yellow eyes meeting Chi's, and stuck his tongue out, licking her cheek.

"Eeeeeep!" she fell back in surprise.

"Oh, looks like you have an admirer," teased Reborn.

"Hey Boss."

"That voice…" Tsuna said hesitantly.

"In here," It was Gokudera, who was pushing himself out of the same cabinet.

"Wh-what were you doing in there!" Tsuna shouted.

The green-eyed bomber moved aside to reveal a rather comfy-looking miniature room, "Reborn-san was teaching me all the basics of assassination!" he replied cheerfully.

"Wasn't it uncomfortable in there?" Chi asked.

"BOSS!" Gokudera bowed, his head repeatedly hitting the floor, "I'm terribly sorry! I should have known how much you didn't want to get expelled!"

'_Ignored again,'_ thought Chi.

"We must find that time capsule!" Gokudera continued, "And I have an idea, just leave it to me!"

Tsuna and Chi gave each other a nervous look.

"We'll just blow up the school ground with these!" he whipped out a large bundle of dynamite and dropped it in Tsuna's hands, "I'll meet you outside Boss!" And he left.

"Wait! Th-this is a really bad idea!" Tsuna shouted.

Chi took half of the sticks out of his hand, "I don't know Tsuna, as crazy as it sounds, it might work…"

"Don't tell me you're taking his side!" cried Tsuna.

Chi was quick to reply, "I-I'm just saying that maybe…we'll be able to find the capsule faster this way, you and I both know that neither of us have the upper body strength to use a shovel…"

Before he could speak, the two heard faint voices coming from the teacher's lounge a few doors down.

"That was cruel of you Nezu-san," a teacher said, sounding amused, "Making those students find a capsule we never buried."

"Don't blame me!" Nezu-sensei laughed, "It's the principal's fault that he couldn't remember that fifteen years ago we didn't bury one!"

"Those students will be expelled no matter how hard they try!" Nezu-sensei laughed again, "Though I'll probably reconsider…if they split the grounds in half in desperation."

"That's not fair!" Tsuna shouted.

BOOM!

"Huh?" The two ran towards the window to see what was going on, but their vision was obstructed by clouds of smoke.

"He-he's actually doing it!" Tsuna cried.

"I hope he's not getting hurt…he didn't seem very happy when I bandaged him the other day," Chi murmured.

"Aaaaagh!" Tsuna fell to his knees, "This is it, we'll get kicked out for sure!"

Chi kneeled down to try and comfort him, but then felt a weight on her head and heard the click of a gun.

"Gokudera doesn't think so," he said, pointing a green pistol at Tsuna's forehead, "There must be a way to avoid expulsion, don't you think?" And he pressed the trigger.

"RAAAAAGH! REBORN!" Tsuna shouted, "DIG UP THE CAMPUS WITH MY DYING WILL!" Then he ran off, dragging Chi along.

Again, unknown to Chi, her eyes had begun to glow an icy blue. Reborn took note and kept in mind to make a call later.

'_Don't get sick, don't get sick, don't get sick,'_ she chanted in her head.

He ran all the way to the courtyard and literally dropped her. He slid along the ground as Leon jumped on his arm and transformed into a pair of rods bent in the shape of an 'L'.

"There you are Boss!" Gokudera shouted amongst the explosions.

"If there's a weak spot in the ground, I'll find it!" Tsuna screamed.

"Re-cough-Reborn-san," Chi choked on the smoke, "What did Leon-san just-cough- do?"

"He can transform into anything he's familiar with," Reborn explained, "as long as it's roughly his size though."

The rods in Tsuna's hands were quivering, "I FOUND IT!" He brought his arm up, attempting to punch into the ground. Chi heard a few clicks from Reborn who was still sitting on top of her head. He shot four bullets into Tsuna's body, three along his arm, one in his spine.

"EH?" Chi flinched, "B-Being shot in the spine, w-won't that…"

"It'll be fine," Reborn reassured her, "Don't worry."

"I'll help too, Boss!" Gokudera shouted, throwing more dynamite throughout the area.

"Aren't you going to use those, Mifune?" Reborn nodded his head towards the bombs currently resting in the girl's lap.

"Ah…" Chi began to sweat, "I-I don't know what to light them up with…"

"Just throw them, it'll be fine." So she tossed the bundle, at the same time, Gokudera had just thrown another handful, and when they all set off, the ground had begun to shake. Chi looked up and saw some of the students look outside and start shouting.

"Tsuna!" she shouted, waving away the dust that was kicked up in the explosion, "Gokudera-san! Where are you!"

Chi could hear Tsuna call out before Nezu-sensei had rushed out of the building.

"Gokudera! Sawada! Mifune!" he shouted, "You delinquents will pay!"

The three turned around and saw Nezu-sensei run out of the building. Gokudera stalked up to him, holding a handful of papers in one hand and an old capsule in the other. He held them up to the teacher who gawked.

"Wh-what is thi-?" he was cut off.

"The time capsule from fifteen years ago didn't turn up," Gokudera explained, "but the one from forty years ago did!" he held a dark look on his face, "An elite academic, huh? Then how come your low test scores are from a crappy school like ours?"

All Nezu-sensei could do was stumble over his words.

* * *

Nezu-sensei was fired and was ordered to clean out his desk by the end of the day.

The three were back in the principal's office. He apologized and let them off.

They left the office and headed back to class while Tsuna and Chi both let out a sigh of relief.

"Phew!" Tsuna breathed, "We didn't get expelled!"

"Now my mom won't have to worry…" sighed Chi.

"Come on, Boss, were you really that worried?" Gokudera asked, "I would've given my life to make sure nothing bad would happen to you."

"G-Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna stared.

"Good job, Tsuna," Reborn congratulated, standing on Chi's shoulder, "You've found a trustworthy soldier."

"Huh?" he flushed a bit in anger, "I don't need soldiers, Reborn! If this 'mafia' stuff gets any bigger, Kyoko-chan will stay further away!"

Chi rubbed his shoulder, "I'm sure it'll be fine Tsuna."

Tsuna groaned lowly in response.

"Oh yeah!" Gokudera dug into his pockets and took out some folded papers, "The tests here are pretty easy, huh?" The tests he held out all had hundreds.

"Y-you're kidding…" Tsuna stuttered, staring at the glaring red numbers. Chi laughed weakly before feeling the day's events catch up to her causing her to get dizzy and quickly black out.

* * *

A while later after the last bell of the day rang, Chi had woken up in the nurse's office.

'_Ah, let's see…'_ Chi thought, _'It's after school…Tsuna could be by the classroom or maybe in the library…'_

She got up and collected her things. After thanking the nurse, Chi left the office and was on her way to the library. Turning into an empty hallway, Chi felt a sharp, cold shiver run down her spine. Chi's breathing had become heavy and every breath was difficult to take in and painful to let out.

'_Not today, not today, please not today…!'_ she prayed mentally. She tried moving her legs, but they stubbornly stayed in place.

"Thought we'd find you here, Freak."

She heard footsteps come up from behind her. She judged from the footsteps that there were about three people.

"We've noticed how friendly you've been getting with Gokudera-kun," one girl hissed.

Another girl grabbed Chi's shoulder and threw her against the wall. Chi's head banged on it as she slid to the floor, her body still not moving the way she wanted it to.

"Don't think that you'll get away with it so easily, _Freak_."

Chi felt her breaths becoming harder and harder to take in.

'_Please, _please_, just leave me alone…'_ she begged, her voice refusing to leave her throat.

Chi chanced a peek and saw a fist flying towards her. Everything else had become a blur of kicks and scratches and the next thing she knew she was thrown into a broom closet, her head feeling curiously lighter.

Dazed yellow eyes widened. Chi tried pushing herself up and saw the girls closing the door. She was shaking. She knew this room. This particular closet didn't have a working light. It wasn't very used either and only locked from the outside. So when the door closed, something inside her…

…snapped.


	9. Chapter 9

Gokudera was frowning as he walked around the campus. Tsuna had asked him to help look for Chi when she didn't show up at the classroom.

"Tch, that stupid woman," Gokudera grumbled, "Who does she think she is, making the Boss worry like that!"

He turned into another hallway and heard some faint pounding and glass breaking.

"What the hell…?" Gokudera glared in the direction of the noise, "Are the idiots here really doing _that_?"

He growled quietly and started walking faster to get through this hall, the thumping was soon accompanied by a muffled voice.

"Help please! Let me out! Someone please! Help! Please!"

A single silver eyebrow was raised and Gokudera looked at the doorknob, briefly ignoring the screams and pounding and the bunches of black hair around the door.

'_It probably only locks from the outside,'_ thought Gokudera. He turned the lock on the shaking knob and was immediately assaulted by the very person he and his boss were looking for.

He fell to the floor, landing on his behind, bringing Chi, who he quickly noticed had shorter hair compared to this morning, with him.

She was choking down her sobs, and hiccupping every once in awhile, just hanging off of the bewildered Gokudera. He looked around, checking if anyone else was there. Seeing no one, He hesitantly raised an arm and awkwardly patted her head until she calmed down.

Noticing that her quiet sobs had stopped, he looked at her face and was met with a sleeping Chi.

Gokudera let out an angry sigh and looked up. He caught sight of the closet she was in.

It was a wreck.

Brooms and mops were all broken in half, bottles of cleaning solution were splattered across the floor, all the shelves were askew and there was broken glass everywhere inside. Also along the floor was a thin, cold layer of mist, akin to what one would see when opening a freezer.

His emerald eyes widened, then narrowed. Did this scrawny, little _stick_ of a girl really just destroy the interior of a broom closet?

Gokudera took some deep breaths trying to calm down and not disturb the pale-faced girl since his boss was already so worried about her. He shifted around and managed to get her on his back. The silver-haired teen stood up and headed back to the library, planning to meet up with Tsuna.

* * *

The brown-eyed teen didn't have any luck. Earlier, he and Gokudera had already checked with the nurse and she told them that the girl was looking for them. Feeling anxious, Tsuna decided to go back to the library and see if Gokudera had fared better.

On his way back, Tsuna spotted three girls walking downstairs. They were laughing and flipping their hair over their shoulders. He wasn't going to spare them any thought, until he got a glance at some of their faces. His eyes widened.

They were the three girls that always picked on Chi.

Tsuna almost felt his heart stop.

He ran back to the library and almost crashed into Gokudera.

"Ah!" Tsuna cried, "Gokudera-kun, we need to find her n-!" He stopped. On the other boy's back was Chi, who was passed out and was now sporting a messy haircut.

Gokudera was grinning, "Boss!" he shouted. Tsuna was worried that he might wake her up, but Chi didn't stir, "I found her in a broom closet!"

"Broom closet?" asked Tsuna, "So it _was_ them," he muttered quietly.

He bit the inside of his cheek, "Th-thank you, Gokudera-kun," he said, "L-let's bring her back to my house, if Auntie Makoto saw her like this, she'd throw a fit."

They went to their shoe lockers and hurried home, where Reborn was waiting for them.

Fortunately, Nana wasn't home yet, Tsuna thought that she had probably gone grocery shopping or was spending some time with Auntie Makoto.

Tsuna led Gokudera up to his room where the taller teen laid Chi on Tsuna's bed.

Eying the cuts and scratches, Gokudera asked, "But what if she stains your sheets, Boss?"

At that moment in time, Tsuna could've really cared less.

"Chi's out cold and needs a proper bed," Tsuna answered a bit sternly. When they were settled down the two boys got a good look at the various wounds littering Chi's unconscious form.

Tsuna winced and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gokudera frown, whether it was in worry or annoyance he couldn't tell.

She was covered in bruises and scratches, some of which were still bleeding, and the skin around her left eye was turning purple. You'd think he'd be used to it by now, but Tsuna doubted that anyone could get used to seeing their best friend being hurt, even though they both get bullied and beat up practically every other week.

"Gokudera-kun," Tsuna said quietly, "Can you keep an eye on her while I get the first aid kit?"

"W-wait Boss!" he shouted, "Let me get it! Where is it!"

After some hesitation, Tsuna told him and was left alone with Chi. The boy let out a sigh and held her hand, rubbing the back of it gently and feeling a very faint scar that was left there from a past beating.

Gokudera soon came back and cleaned the wounds they could see, letting Nana take care of the rest when she came home.

* * *

Some hours later, Chi woke up feeling groggy and sore. She looked around and noted that she was in Tsuna's room.

Releasing a quiet groan, Chi held her head, _'Ugh…what happened…? Oh, that's right. After trying to beat the door to death and shouting myself hoarse, the door opened and I jumped at Gokudera-san. He must've unlocked the door. Oh dear, I better apologize the next time I see him.'_

She shifted around to get the feeling back into her arms and legs when another thought hit her, _'Oh...did I get blood on the floor, oh dear, Hibari-san won't be very happy about that...'_

Chi sighed and rubbed her head. She heard the familiar battle theme of one of her and Tsuna's video games and turned her head to her left.

It was Tsuna, he was trying to get past the level they were both working so hard to beat.

"Tsuna…" she whispered hoarsely. He dropped the controller in surprise and immediately sat next to the bed.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded, her neck feeling a little stiff. Chi looked at her hand and saw it wrapped in bandages. She gave Tsuna a questioning look.

"Gokudera-kun and I took care of the ones we could see, my mom got the rest," he explained.

"I see…" she mumbled, her voice scratchy.

"I-I'll get you some water!" and he left the room. Chi turned her head and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"If you don't get any stronger, you can't be part of Tsuna's famiglia," spoke a high-pitched voice.

"Reborn-san…" The tiny tutor was standing on top of Tsuna's desk, his head was tilted, the brim of his hat shadowing his eyes.

"You're his best friend," he continued, "so he'll need to be able to trust you to protect yourself and others."

Still a bit dazed, Chi let her eyes wander towards Reborn's hat, Leon was staring back at her with his wide reptilian eyes.

Chi frowned, "I can't fight."

"Can't or won't?"

She stayed silent.

Before either of them could say anything else, Tsuna came back in, carrying a tray with snacks and drinks.

"Hehehe, sorry for the wait, my mom wanted to make sure you got something to eat," he laughed. Tsuna helped Chi sit up and they started to eat, talking about the video game Tsuna was playing earlier, the two of them purposefully avoiding the topic of today. Reborn then jump-kicked Tsuna, scolding him about something, while Chi had freaked out.

* * *

As the sun was beginning to set, Tsuna walked Chi home and after saying their goodbyes, Chi went inside…

"Oh, sweetheart!" …to be attacked by her mother, "Chi, sweetie, are you alright? Oh! Your hair!" Makoto's eyes were shining with unshed tears as she ran her fingers through her daughter's uneven haircut, the ends now hanging a few inches above her shoulder.

"I'm fine, Mom," Chi reassured, voice still a little hoarse, "I'm kinda tired, but I'm fine."

Makoto let out a sigh and held her close, "Sweetheart, are you sure you don't want me to tell the school?"

Chi froze, "NO, Mom, please, don't call the school, they'll just start ganging up on me more!"

Her mother bit the inside of her lip, "Then, maybe you could reconsider…" she let out another sigh, "Ah, what am I saying, I can't let you go to a different school and have you separated from Tsuna-kun, can I?"

Chi shook my head, gripping her mother tightly. Makoto started stroking the girl's hair and began to slowly rock side to side.

Conversations like this were commonplace after Chi's test scores had gone down and Chi would come home bruised and cut up. Makoto would think about calling the school, Chi would adamantly refuse, then the older woman would talk about sending Chi to a different school, and they'd both agree to disagree.

Makoto was grateful for Tsuna, who helped to somewhat cure Chi's immense fear of people. So both thought it'd be a good idea for Chi to help Tsuna with studying. Unfortunately, no matter how much studying she did, Chi's mind would go blank before every test due to nerves which led to her low grades.

After a few minutes, Makoto started talking again.

"Are you hungry, sweetheart?"

Chi nodded, her head still pressed against her mother's collar, "Just a little."

Makoto pushed some of Chi's hair behind her ear and held her at a close distance, looking at her daughter with warm eyes.

"I'll cook up a light dinner then, you go take a shower," she kissed my forehead, "And afterwards, I'll see if I can even out your hair, okay?"

Chi nodded again, and went up to her room.

'_With a mom like mine, how did I get so screwed up?'_ Chi thought sadly.

* * *

After dinner, the two were in to bathroom where Makoto was brushing off the hair that landed on her daughter's shoulders.

"What do you think?" she asked, "Do you like it?"

Chi looked at the bathroom mirror and turned her head.

Her hair was now sporting a layered look with the longest layer ending at a slightly rounded point against the nape of her neck and the shortest stopping under her ears. Her bangs were swept off to one side, some wayward strands covered her left eye and brushing the bridge of her nose while leaving her right eye for all to see. Other layers of her hair framed her face and brushed against her cheeks.

Chi nodded, "I really like it, Mom. Thank you."

Still sitting, she turned around to face her mother and wrapped her arms around Makoto's waist, burying her face into her stomach. Makoto chuckled.

"I'm not much of a hairdresser, but I'm glad you like it so much," she hugged Chi back, stroking the soft strands.

* * *

The next morning as Chi was walking to Tsuna's, she spotted a familiar silver-haired teen standing at the gate outside her friend's home.

As she came closer, Chi began to mentally prepare herself to speak to the 'scary' Gokudera.

"G-Gokudera-san…" was as far as she got before being cut off by a sharp glare.

"The Boss doesn't need a weak woman like you," he said. Chi jumped a bit and shrunk back.

"E-eh…?" she squeaked.

"You made him worry about you yesterday, stop bothering the Boss!" Seeing Chi's small form tremble, Gokudera continued, "Got anything to say for yourself, Stupid Woman?"

Chi let out a tiny whimper before taking in a breath and bowing, "I'm sorry for making you carry me all the way to Tsuna's house, and for making Tsuna worry so much," she raised her head a bit but then remembered something and bent her head once more, "Also, we didn't get properly introduced, my name is Mifune Chi, it's nice to meet you, Gokudera-san."

"Tch," he scoffed, "You better be apologize to the Boss too, Stupid Woman."

"Are your cuts and burns feeling better, Gokudera-san?" asked Chi.

Gokudera snorted, "You worry too much, as if something as small as that would hurt me."

Chi whimpered again and quickly walked up to Tsuna's front door and knocked.

"Ah! Chi-chan~ Good morning~!" greeted Nana, pulling the pale girl inside, "You come in too Gokudera-kun!"

They left their shoes at the door and Gokudera walked quickly up the stairs to Tsuna's room. Chi was walking a bit slowly, still feeling sore from yesterday. By the time Chi came to his door, Gokudera sped out and left the house.

A bit confused, Chi continued inside Tsuna's room.

"Good morning, Tsuna," she greeted, not at all bothered by the half-naked boy in front of her. Years of taking baths together as children had made her almost immune. His body didn't change as much as hers, though she'd still be very upset if Tsuna had come in and found her in the middle of taking off her shirt...

"Hey, Chi," he said, taking off his pants, she turned around to give him some privacy, "How're you feeling today?"

"Much better," Chi said, "Sorry for causing trouble yesterday."

"It's fine, what're best friends for?" Hearing the pants zipper being pulled up, Chi turned around, seeing Tsuna was frantically searching for his shirt.

"What did Gokudera-san say before running off?" she asked, picking up the shirt Tsuna was looking for from the back of his desk chair and giving it to him.

"Um," Tsuna slipped his arms through the short sleeves, "Something about stocking up his dynamite supply, he's not going to school today, by the way, nice haircut."

She could tell he let out a mental sigh of relief. But then he gave Chi a worried look.

"You okay, Chi?" he asked, "You seem bothered by something."

Chi sighed, "I need to stop fainting so much."

A short pause. Then they both let out a laugh.

"We had this conversation before, Chi," said Tsuna, tying his tie with a bit of difficulty.

"I know, but Reborn-san and Gokudera-san both said I'm weak, which is true, so don't try and deny it," she replied, helping Tsuna with his tie.

"Let's hope Reborn doesn't put you through his crazy training like he's doing with me," he sighed.

"'Crazy Training'?"

Reborn jumped out from behind Tsuna and kicked him on the back of his head, letting Chi catch him.

"What are you calling 'crazy', No-good Tsuna," Reborn said with a malicious smirk on his face, "Hurry up, I'm not going to have my student be late for school."

Needless to say, they both ran. Mainly because Reborn was brandishing a gun and pointing it at them, already shooting.

* * *

Fortunately, Chi managed to avoid the girls from yesterday, and most of her other bullies.

'_Ah, it's good to blend in with the background,'_ she sighed mentally. Unfortunately, today was the girls' turn to run. While most would think Chi would be able to run a good distance due to avoiding the students who wished to pummel her into the concrete, Chi was still very sore from yesterday and thus, she strained herself to finish the laps.

After the girls were called in, Chi limped to the boys' side of the field. They were playing baseball today.

She ran out to the field to help Tsuna clean up when she saw Yamamoto Takeshi already helping him. They seemed to be talking about something serious, if Yamamoto's expression was anything to go by.

Yamamoto Takeshi is one of, if not, THE most popular boy at Namimori Middle. A happy-go-lucky type of guy who can get along with almost anyone and has a constant hundred-watt grin on his face, somewhat tan from all his baseball practices and games. He's also the school's top baseball player. And not to mention tall.

Easily one of the most terrifying people on Chi's never-ending list.

"Tsuna," she called out hesitantly after Yamamoto turned around. He looked at her and waved her over.

"There're some baseballs over by the bleachers," he said. She nodded, "Hey, Chi, you wouldn't mind helping me with our science homework would you?"

"Not at all, you know I'm always willing to help."

"Hey!" Chi jumped. "You wouldn't mind helping me too, would you?"

She quickly turned around and saw Yamamoto Takeshi right behind her.

And as expected, she fainted.

Tsuna freaked out a bit from seeing Chi faint. Yamamoto bent down giving the unconscious girl a once over.

"Is she okay?" he asked. Tsuna gave a shaky laugh.

"Y-Yeah, this usually happens when she's around people she doesn't know very well, eheheheh…" Tsuna rubbed the back of his head.

Yamamoto grinned, "Hahaha, really?"

Tsuna nodded.

"Hm," Yamamoto held his chin, "Well, you guys seem pretty close since you guys didn't use any honorifics, how long have you guys known each other?"

"Ah, about ten years now?" Tsuna guessed, "Give or take a year."

"Hahaha! That's a pretty long time!" Yamamoto laughed.

"Y-yeah, u-um, do you mind helping me give Chi some air?" He asked, using his hand to fan his best friend.

"I don't mind at all!"

Tsuna made sure to keep an eye out for any one who would try to hurt Chi, since she was so close to one of the most popular students at school at the moment.

"So Tsuna!" Yamamoto said, "You think hard work will get my batting average up again?"

"H-huh?" Tsuna stuttered, "Y-yeah…of course."

"Hahaha! Alrighty then!"

* * *

When Chi woke up some time later, Tsuna told her that Yamamoto had left to go practice baseball some more and they were free to go home.

'_He's going to practice more? But it's getting kind of late,'_ Chi looked up at the darkening sky, _'Then again, Yamamoto-san is the best player at our school, and probably the entire town…but too much practicing can really put a strain on your body…'_

That evening Tsuna and Chi had decided to have another sleepover, with the intent to defeat a pesky boss in one of their various games.

The two were currently in their sleepwear, Tsuna in blue shorts and a white t-shirt and Chi in white shorts and a black tee, glaring heatedly at the television screen.

"You seem awfully excited, Tsuna," Reborn commented from Tsuna's desk.

"Why wouldn't I be!" Tsuna began button mashing as they were fighting the boss, "The most popular guy in our class asked me for advice! Me! It was awesome!" Triumphant music played after they managed landed the final hit.

"Yeah!" they cheered, throwing their arms in the air.

"After two weeks…" Chi muttered darkly, "We finally beat him…"

"It's about time…" Tsuna said in the same tone.

Reborn interrupted their celebration, "So about Yamamoto…"

"You mean you already knew!" Tsuna shouted. Chi smiled weakly and patted Tsuna's shoulder, grabbing her cup of water on the table in the middle of the room.

"…Make him one of your men," Reborn finished. Chi choked on the water while Tsuna got upset.

"What! No way!" Tsuna shouted, "I'm not gonna make Yamamoto give up baseball for the-the Mafia!"

"Don't disobey your elders," said Reborn, and he proceeded to kick Tsuna in the head.

After cleaning up the two got ready for bed. Reborn was already asleep in his own bed, hidden somewhere in the room.

Tsuna and Chi were lying next to each other, staring up at the ceiling, watching the streetlights from the outside filling the darkened room.

"You're not really going to talk to Yamamoto-san about this mafia stuff, are you?" Chi asked quietly.

Tsuna grumbled, "I don't want to, but knowing Reborn, I'll end up including him somehow…" his eyes darkened in worry.

She took his hand and squeezed, "If that happens, I'm sure you'll be able to do something to keep Yamamoto-san happy. I'll help you too."

Tsuna squeezed back and looked at her, honey-brown meeting topaz-yellow, "Thanks, Chi."

They slid their heads closer together on their shared pillow, until the sides tapped against each other.

"What are friends for?"

* * *

_Ring Ri- Click_

"What," came the annoyed voice of Michael. Reborn smirked.

"How impolite, mission reports getting to you?" he taunted. Michael sighed, the sound of hair being ruffled was heard through the receiver.

"Just tell me what you want to tell me and let me get back to work."

Reborn's smirk disappeared, "You're an expert on this, are her eyes supposed to have blue in them?"

"I'm not an expert, I've just experienced it," Michael retorted, "Yeah, once _it_ awakens it's presence will become more apparent, as long as she doesn't use it too much in one sitting, she should be fine, just make sure she doesn't start using it until I get there."

_Click_

"Hm," Reborn looked at the small phone in his hand remembering what Gokudera had told him that day.

_The teen was speaking to the infant outside the Sawada home._

"_There was a cold air coming from the broom closet where I found her, Reborn-san," he explained, "You seem to have some idea of what it is."_

_Reborn had made no movement to prove that statement correct, "I'll see what I can find out."_

"A little late for that."


	10. Chapter 10

It was morning again at school. During break there was a sudden commotion outside the classroom. There were students running down the halls, all of them looking worried. One of them slammed open the door and shouted:

"There's an emergency! Yamamoto-kun's going to jump off the school roof!"

The classroom burst with shouts of disbelief.

"What!?"

"No way!"

Yamamoto-kun would never do that!"

"I'm serious!" the student exclaimed, "He stayed late after school to practice alone, but he overdid it and fractured his arm!"

'_Stayed late…?'_ thought Chi. Before her thoughts could go any further, a pale Tsuna had grabbed at Chi's arm.

"Is…is it my fault?" he whispered.

"Tsuna, what exactly did you tell Yamamoto-san yesterday?"

As he quietly explained that he told Yamamoto-san to work harder to raise his batting average, the class quickly deserted the room.

"Sawada-kun!" Kyoko called out, "Let's go!"

"A-ah! W-we'll catch up!" he stuttered back. Chi gave Tsuna a curious look, he grimaced and they both ran to the roof, following the crowd of students.

As soon as the two stepped onto the roof, Tsuna pulled Chi behind the entrance building.

"I never should have said those things in the first place!" he tugged at his hair, "I don't even work hard! I'm a hypocrite!"

"Tsuna, as much as I'd like to help calm you down right now, can I remind you that we're kind of short on time?" Chi warned.

"She's right, you know," said a voice from behind us.

They turned around to find Reborn pointing a gun at Tsuna, "If you want to help Yamamoto, don't run."

Chi flinched, but Tsuna was quick enough to pull her away and drag the both of them into the crowd. Unfortunately, Tsuna ran into another student and they ended up skidding across the roof and stopping a few feet away from Yamamoto. When Tsuna and Chi managed to gather their bearings, they started to panic. Mainly because Tsuna was in Yamamoto's line of sight and Chi was in front of a crowd of people.

"Tsuna, Chi," Yamamoto said, turning to look at the boy on the ground, "If you guys came here to stop me, don't. You of all people should understand how I feel."

"Eh?" They replied.

"They call you, 'Loser Tsuna', and, 'Freak', you guys must know how it feels when everything goes wrong and you think you'd be better off dead, right?"

Chi was shaking and trembling, her arms pressed against her middle. She knew exactly how Yamamoto felt.

A failure, a disgrace, useless.

Everything and everyone would be _so_ much better off if you were dead.

And standing at the edge of a high building felt relieving, almost _liberating_. The same way those sharp razorblades had felt against her skin…

Chi shook her head to clear those thoughts. She forced herself to take deep breaths to calm her frantic heartbeat while Tsuna spoke to Yamamoto.

"Y-Yamamoto-kun…I…we're different…" Tsuna trailed off. That didn't seem to be the reply Yamamoto wanted or expected, as he glared at the two.

"So what? Just because things are looking up for you guys, now you think you guys are some big shots? Is that how it is? Now you guys do everything right?" His voice was rising.

"N-No!" Tsuna shouted, "It's because we _are_ losers! We've never invested our lives into anything like you, Yamamoto-kun! I…I just wanted to cheer you up, to-to help you so I said things about working hard, when I've never worked hard at anything!"

Tsuna let out a heavy breath and bowed his head, "E-everything I said was just…I'm sorry!"

"Unlike you, I've never felt angry enough that I wanted to die or kill myself…" Tsuna confessed, "I've never felt anything like that."

"I mean, I'm a loser. I really only look back at my life when I'm facing my own death, I think about all the things I wanted to do, things I wish I'd done…but this…it's not worth taking your life." Tsuna sighed, 'Th-that's why I can't understand…I'm sorry."

Taking in a slow breath, Chi hesitantly stepped forward, her lungs feeling as if they were being crushed.

"Yamamoto-san," she began, her voice quiet but clear, "I understand that baseball is important to you, but is it really worth killing yourself?"

Yamamoto stayed silent.

Feeling some glares on her back, Chi swallowed and looked down at her feet, "I'm not saying that you aren't allowed to be upset, no one has the right to tell you otherwise, but...think about the people that care about you."

Yamamoto turned his head.

"If you die…everyday everyone here will wonder what they could've done," she explained, "There will always be one empty seat at the table, and your family will accidentally make food for you or wait for you to come home from school," Chi's breathing became short and panicked as the glares felt heavier.

"When they remember that you won't be there to eat the food, and won't be coming home, when your parents pass by your room, or your friends walk by your seat..." she took in another shaky, pained breath, continuing to stare at the floor, "They'll be sad, because they'll remember you're not there anymore..."

Chi paused and clenched her eyes shut, clutching at her shirt as if it were her lifeline while her stomach tied itself into excruciatingly tight knots.

"No one is going to be upset with you for not being able to perform your best, Yamamoto-san, they just want you to be okay, everyone is here because they're worried, they don't want you to go away, they don't want you to leave," she coughed to clear her throat, "They want you to stay, to be here, to keep smiling and to keep having fun with them, they want you to be happy..."

She stopped speaking when the lump in her throat became too thick. Chi's breaths had become weak and broken as she stood there, knees trembling and knocking into each other as her shirt strained against her grip, her knuckles had gone white.

"Chi, have you…" Yamamoto murmured, his amber eyes taking in the girl's frail figure.

Tsuna and Chi, having said what they believed was needed, turned to run to the roof entrance.

"Ah, wait-!" Yamamoto reached for the back of Tsuna's collar and pulled him back. The two fell back and the part of the fence Yamamoto was standing against broke off.

Chi quickly turned around, her eyes widening. Without hesitation, she ran towards the pair and reached for Yamamoto's wrist, twisting around to toss them away from the edge. As the two stumbled back, Chi felt her foot slip and she suddenly felt her body leaving the roof.

Before she completely fell over the edge, her eyes met with the terrified amber-brown of Yamamoto and the horrified golden honey of Tsuna. She felt relief rush through her veins as she closed her eyes, the adrenaline finally running out and she passed out, but not before hearing a faint gunshot and someone screaming her name.

* * *

Once Chi became aware, she twitched her fingers, feeling a rough fabric under her hands. She felt exhausted, everything was sore. Chi turned her head and felt a soft cushion brush against her cheek.

"...Chi? Are you awake?"

She groaned quietly in response.

"Ah, we should probably get the nurse, huh Tsuna?"

"W-wait, she's waking up!"

"Hmm?" Chi opened her eyes, her vision blurry, "Tsuna...? Y-Yamamoto-san?"

"Chi! A-Are you feeling okay?!" Tsuna shouted, "We're in the nurse's office, and school's over so we could head home as soon as you're better."

Chi winced while shifting around and took in a deep breath, "Are...you guys...okay?"

"Wha-!" Tsuna spluttered, "You fell off a building and almost died! And you're asking _us_ if we're okay?!"

"..." Chi blinked, "Are you?"

Tsuna face-palmed and flopped over his friend's bed, pressing his face into the blanket.

"Haha," Yamamoto chuckled, "Tsuna, Chi, you guys are awesome."

"Huh?" Tsuna replied sitting up. Chi tried not to panic as she faced the tall teen.

"You're right," said Yamamoto, "I should give it my all, like my life depends on it. Thanks for worrying about me, you guys."

He let out a sheepish laugh, "I don't know what got into me. There's no telling what an idiot like me might do when I'm depressed."

Chi sighed as the two boys laughed, feeling relieved that Tsuna and Yamamoto were both safe.

"Ah, sh-should we get the nurse?" Tsuna looked around worriedly. Yamamoto tilted his head, thinking.

"Hey Tsuna," he asked, "Do you mind getting her? I kinds want to talk to Chi alone, if that's okay..." he looked down at the girl in the bed.

The two glanced at each other and Chi nodded hesitantly. Tsuna reluctantly left the baseball player and his best friend alone.

"Chi..." Yamamoto said in a serious tone, "About what you said earlier, did you...I mean," he used his free hand and ran it through his short black hair, "Have you felt like that before? It...seemed like you were speaking from experience..."

Chi felt her heart drop down to her stomach. But she swallowed and let topaz meet amber, and spoke with the utmost honesty, "You're important to many people, Yamamoto-san, I didn't want you to feel as if you were alone."

* * *

Chi had found herself sitting on the cold, tiled floor of her bathroom. Her chest felt heavy and she couldn't feel her hands. Chi looked around and rested her gaze on her lap. She squinted, a bright light temporarily blinding her.

'W-what's going on…?' she thought. Her blurry eyesight had somewhat cleared, allowing her to focus on what it was she was holding so tightly.

It was a small package of razorblades. The box itself was next to her thigh and laying on its side, the small blades spilling out across the tiles. In her right hand, Chi was holding one tight enough that it had left a deep cut in her palm.

For some reason, she loosened her grip.

Her hand began to move, bringing the small, shiny blade closer and closer to her stomach while her left hand lifted her shirt. The sharp edge slowly dug into the skin of her abdomen, the deep red blood quickly boiling to the surface…

Chi shot straight up in her bed, breathing heavily. Panting, she placed her forehead on her hand.

Getting her breathing under control, Chi lifted her shirt and brushed her fingers across her stomach.

Thin, silvery-like scars ran from one side of her pelvis to the other. She remembered how deep or shallow each cut was. She remembered how she'd sit in the bathtub and lean against the wall, staring at the trickling blood streaming down the side of her leg and down the drain. And she remembered how _calm_ she felt after every incision she made, how _relaxing_ it was to just watch it all flow away...

She sighed and looked over at the clock on her nightstand.

Three in the morning.

She flopped back on her bed, and turned to stare at her cell phone on the same nightstand, contemplating about whether or not to call Tsuna.

Chi let out a quiet, aggravated sigh.

It had been about a year since she had last cut herself, and she promised herself not to do it anymore, for the sake of her parents, Tsuna and his family, even if they would never know. Chi had never cut her wrists, but she did cut at her thighs, and a few times on her stomach, to make it easier to hide.

She wasn't proud of what she had done. But everyone has their moments of weakness and sometimes, the sharp, agonizing pain from a tiny blade was her only source of relief.

Chi clutched her blanket and picked up the cell phone, flipping it open and called Tsuna.

_Riiing Riiing Riiing Rii-_

"Ngh…hello…?" came Tsuna's groggy voice.

"Tsuna?" she whispered, "I'm sorry for waking you up."

"Mnn, it's fine," he said, sounding a little more awake, "Were you having trouble sleeping again?"

"Y-yeah…" Chi replied quietly, "Can…can I…come over?"

Tsuna let out a stifled yawn, "Yeah sure, but, are you sure you don't want me to come over to your place?"

"I'm sure, besides, I woke you up, I shouldn't make you walk all the way to my house."

He gave a sleepy chuckle, "You're only a few houses away, it's not far at all."

Chi frowned, "I'm going over to your house, no ifs, ands, or buts."

They both laughed quietly. Tsuna gave the okay and hung up. Grabbing her jacket, Chi quietly walked downstairs to write a note and left it on her bedroom door so her mother would see it in the morning.

Putting on her grey jacket and sneakers, Chi quickly left the house and walked in a fast pace to Tsuna's.

Upon reaching her destination, Tsuna was already opening the door, and led her towards the kitchen, giving her a warm cup of tea. They both went into the living room and sat down on the couch, wrapping a thick blanket that Tsuna brought from his room around themselves. They didn't talk, just took in each others' company. Chi barely drank half of her cup before the two nodded off, leaning against each other.

'_Please, no more nightmares, at least not tonight,'_ she thought.

* * *

The next morning Tsuna and Chi woke up around nine, fortunately, it was a Sunday.

"Any nightmares, Chi?" Tsuna asked. She shook her head.

"None, I didn't dream of anything, you?" Seeing Tsuna's face flush a bit, Chi immediately retracted her question, "Nevermind, I don't think I want to know."

After agreeing that they were both feeling a little lazy today, Chi decided to go home, giving Nana and Reborn a 'good morning' and a 'goodbye' before leaving.

When Chi left, Tsuna let out a large sigh. For the ten to eleven years he's known her, Chi had always suffered from constant nightmares. What's worse was that they had only gotten even more disturbing the last two years, fortunately, she didn't cry as much as she used to whenever she woke up from one.

"No-good Tsuna."

Tsuna flinched.

"Oof!" He grunted when Reborn kicked him in the shoulder, "Wh-what was that for?"

"You weren't dreaming about Sasagawa Kyoko. Were you?" he asked.

'_H-how'd he know?'_ thought Tsuna.

"I overheard your conversation."

Tsuna shivered then pouted at the thought of an infant wielding a mallet twice his size. Reborn, being the mind-reading hitman that he is, kicked his student in the back.

"Don't insult your elders," he scolded.

"What elders? All I see is baby in front of me!" argued Tsuna.

"You were dreaming about Chi, weren't you?"

Tsuna felt his face getting warm. But not from embarrassment.

Yes, he did dream about his best friend, but it wasn't anything good. For in his dream, Chi was crying. It was in a dark room, and the young girl was on her knees. Chi's hands had covered her tear-stained face and a dark, red liquid was running down her arms.

Tsuna frowned, he wasn't sure what that could mean. He had never seen any markings on Chi's arms other than bruises and the occasional burn.

He shook his head. Chi would never resort to that…

…right?

* * *

Stepping inside her home, Chi's senses were hit with the delicious smell of breakfast.

Grilled mackerel with rice and a cup of green tea, her favorite.

Chi was obviously biased, but who could complain when she believed that her mother made the best broiled fish, with the perfect amount of salt and grilled flavor.

Chi felt her self begin to drool.

"Good morning, sweetie!" her mother greeted, "How was your late night sleepover?"

"It was nice," she replied, "That reminds me, I need to change my bedding."

"Oh?" Makoto asked, "Was it too hot in your room last night?"

"Just a bit," she admitted.

"Well then, we can do that when we're cleaning the house today!" her mother exclaimed, "Sit down Chi-sweetheart, breakfast is just about done!"

'_Mmm,'_ thought Chi, breathing in the smell of grilled fish and sighing happily.

* * *

Later that evening, when Chi was reading in her room, Tsuna called to tell her everything that had happened to him today.

"H-hold on, Tsuna!" she stuttered, "Slow down!"

He took a few breaths, "Sorry, Chi…it's just, today was the most horrible day of my life!"

Chi let out a breath as she leaned against her headboard, placing the book she was reading in her lap, "It's okay, just start over, and start speaking slowly. We have time."

As he was explaining, his voice would get squeaky and he'd start talking faster, Chi periodically asking him to slow down.

"Um, okay," she rubbed her forehead, "Let's see if I got everything: Reborn-san interrupted your manga-time, telling you he invited Sasagawa-san over as a thank you for getting him coffee."

"Uh huh."

"Then your mom came in and started teasing you about being a clumsy, no-good teenager."

"In front of the girl I like."

"In front of the girl you like," repeated Chi, feeling a foreign emotion that made her lungs to feel as if they collapsed for a few seconds, she cleared her throat, "then he set up a game of Russian Roulette after your mom left."

"Uh huh."

"And when it was Sasagawa-san's turn, there was an actual bullet in the gun, and she shot it in her head."

"Yeah, and it was a Dying Will bullet."

"Okay, so it made her go into that 'Dying Will Mode', and she went down into the kitchen and threatened your mom into apologizing."

Tsuna sighed before answering, "Y-yeah…"

"Then Reborn-san took out a giant mallet and hit Sasagawa-san causing the bullet to come flying out of her head which then led to her becoming unconscious and she was taken home by Reborn-san."

"Yeah…"

"You're holding something back, Tsuna." she heard him fall over from whatever it was he was sitting on.

"H-how'd you know!"

"Think about how long we've known each other, Tsuna."

"O-oh, right…"

"I heard you fall, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…"

"Now what are you hiding?"

"E-eh…" Chi then heard him drop his head against a hard surface, most likely his desk, "Kyoko-chan totally rejected me!"

Chi blinked, sitting up straight, she replied simply, "Eh?"

"My mom was just teasing by saying Kyoko-chan was a good girlfriend and when she was harassing my mom, she told her to take it back!"

"I see…" Chi mumbled, "Well, maybe she didn't necessarily mean to sound like that, Tsuna."

He began crying over the phone.

"Eh! Ah, Tsu-Tsuna!" Chi panicked, her free arm was held up near the phone, trembling, "Don't-don't cry, I-I'm supposed to be the one crying, I'm the girl here…"

* * *

_Ring Ri-Click_

"Oh? It's rare for you to call me, Michael," said Reborn.

"I'm coming tomorrow around noon, maybe," answered Michael.

"'Maybe'?"

"It'd depend on whether I'm getting another mission or not, just make sure she's ready."

_Click_


	11. Chapter 11

It was another weekend and Chi was at Tsuna's, helping him study for their math class. Their new teacher had a habit of giving pop quizzes and Chi wanted to make sure Tsuna would be prepared.

"U-um…i-is it…three?" Tsuna asked hesitantly.

"Wrong."

_Click. BOOM._

Reborn was 'helping' as well.

In order to avoid a fainting Chi during this…violent tutoring session, Reborn gave her a pair of ear plugs and told her to ignore the vibrations from the bombs.

"Wh-what kind of tutor uses explosives to punish their student for getting an answer wrong!?" Tsuna shouted, trying to hide behind Chi, who was forcing herself to ignore her surroundings.

"This kind," said Reborn simply, "I find that my methods are quite effective."

"And how is this supposed to help me study!?" he shouted to Reborn.

"The fear of getting it wrong will help you remember the correct answer," he replied.

Chi let out a shaky sigh, giving in and taking out the ear plugs, "H-here Tsuna, l-let me see your work."

Looking over his paper, Chi heard the clicking of a gun again. Lifting her gaze, it trailed over to the open window, a small boy wearing a cow suit and sporting a large afro was pointing a gun at an unresponsive Reborn and was perched on a tree branch.

"Eh?" Chi blinked and rubbed her eyes, "A-am I seeing things?"

"Wh-what the-?" Tsuna stared wide-eyed.

Reborn only opened up one of the workbooks Chi brought over, "Okay, let's review this section here…"

"U-um, Reborn-san, th-there's someone at the window…" she stuttered.

"Die Reborn!" said the boy. Reborn didn't seem to notice him.

"Reborn! There's a kid trying to kill you!" Tsuna was freaking out while Chi was starting to get clammy from seeing such a small boy wielding a gun.

"I got you now, Reborn!" Then there was a loud creaking sound coming from the tree the boy was on. The branch was beginning to break off and the boy and the branch both fell.

"HIIIIEEEEEE!" Tsuna shrieked, Chi clutched tightly onto his shoulder.

They ran to the window to see if he was alright. He was running to the front door and heard Nana opening it.

"Hm? Hello?" She was looking around in confusion. Tsuna and Chi heard small thumps coming from outside his room and in came the boy from outside.

"Long time no see, Reborn!" the boy said, "It's me, Lambo!"

"Reborn-san, do you know him?" Chi asked.

But Reborn just ignored the boy, and was making Tsuna remember formulas.

"Grr…Don't ignore me, Reborn!" Lambo was charging at Reborn-san but was swiftly smacked against the wall by the inattentive tutor.

"Uuuu…I, LAMBO, AGE FIVE, A HITMAN FROM THE BOVINO FAMILY, TRIPPED," he shouted, "I, LAMBO, WHOSE FAVORITE FOODS ARE GRAPES AND HARD CANDIES AND WHO MET REBORN AT A BAR, TRIPPED!"

Chi felt herself twitching as Lambo was shouting, fortunately Tsuna was keeping her grounded by placing his hand against her back.

"He looks pretty desperate to let people know about him," he muttered.

"…M-my ears…" Chi groaned quietly.

"Tsuna," Reborn began, "Use this formula to solve this."

"Uh, okay…"

"And Mifune."

"Y-yes?" she stammered.

"What do you use here?"

"S-substitution."

"Correct. Now solve it."

Chi couldn't help but look back at Lambo who was again attempting to get Reborn's attention by pulling various items out of his hair…with little success.

"Mifune, pay attention," ordered Reborn.

"A-ah, s-sorry…"

The two teens went back to studying amidst small sniffles from Lambo.

"Wahaha! I brought all sorts of special Bovino Family weapons!" said Lambo, "Ta-da!" he took out a large weapon that looked like a miniature cannon, "The Ten-Year Bazooka! Get hit with it and you'll switch places with your future self for five minutes!"

Tsuna and Chi both flinched, worried that the bazooka might go off.

"It's just for display, but I'll put it back so it won't go off on accident," Lambo said. "Oh! What could this be?" he asked, holding a small grenade.

"EH!" the two teens shouted.

"NYAHAHAHA!" Lambo laughed, loudly, "Die Reborn!"

Reborn's arm seemed to blur as it blocked the incoming grenade which then hit Lambo which _then _caused him to fall out the open window…

_BOOM!_

While Chi was mentally freaking out about an injured cow-child, Tsuna was questioning Reborn, "R-Reborn, who was he, did you know him?"

"Not at all," he replied, flipping through the workbook.

"Huh?" Tsuna asked.

"The Bovino Famiglia is a small family in the Mafia world," Reborn explained, "I don't associate with those of low status."

"I-is that so…" Chi murmured.

"Tsu-kuuun!" Nana called. They went downstairs.

"What is it, Mom?" Nana motioned toward her leg.

"Isn't this a friend of Reborn-kun's?" They looked down, seeing a beat up Lambo covered in scratches and dirt.

"E-eh?" Chi stuttered.

"Did they have a fight?" Nana asked, "You should help them get along! You too, Chi-chan!"

"W-wait!" they tried to protest, but Nana interrupted.

"Oh, and Chi-chan, Ma-chan just called, she said there's going to be a visitor coming and wants you to come home," she informed.

"Visitor?" Chi asked. Reborn hopped on her shoulder.

"You can go home, Mifune, I'll take care of the tutoring," he said.

"U-um, o-okay," Chi put on her shoes, "I-I'll call you later, Tsuna."

"B-bye…" Tsuna trailed, nervous about being left to Reborn.

* * *

When she got home, Chi found her mother in the kitchen preparing tea.

"Ah! Chi-chan!" she exclaimed, "Just in time, could you get the teapot for me please?"

"Yes, mom," answered Chi, "U-um, who's coming?"

"Well," Makoto started, "I got a call from Reborn-kun this morning after you left, he said that someone will be coming by today, he didn't specify who, though…"

"R-really…?" Chi bit her lip.

'_Reborn-san?'_ She thought, _'This could be bad…'_

_Knock Knock_

"Oh, they're here," Makoto wiped her hands on a nearby hand towel and picked up the tray holding the small porcelain teapot and equally small cups, "Could you get the door, sweetheart?"

"Y-yeah…" Chi cautiously made her way to the front door and warily opened it to reveal a tall young man with mussed black hair, the tips brushing the base of his neck and grazing the bridge of his nose. Serious amber eyes gazed back, contrasting his laid-back posture.

He bowed, "Good afternoon, my name is Michael Acedia, ah, I suppose it would be Acedia Michael here, wouldn't it?"

"H-hello, Acedia-san was it?" Chi greeted meekly. Michael nodded.

"I prefer if you called me, 'Mika' though," he said.

"'Mika-san'?" Makoto came up from behind her daughter, "Well then, would you like to come in? I have some drinks and snacks prepared if you'd like any."

Bowing and stepping inside, Michael, or Mika, took off his black shoes, his lightly tanned hands partially covered by the sleeves of his loose black shirt, his gray cargo pants rustling as he straightened his figure.

"Thank you for inviting me in, Reborn-san told you I was coming, yes?" he asked, following the woman into the living room.

Makoto nodded, "Yes, he also mentioned that you didn't have a place to stay?"

"That's correct."

"Ah, we can't have that," she admonished, "Would you be alright staying here for your visit?"

"If it's not too much trouble," he replied, after they all sat down, "Oh, and by the way."

"Hm?" asked Makoto and Chi.

"I just want to clear things up, I know it'll be a bit hard to believe, but," Mika sighed and ran his left hand through his hair, the ring on his hand glinting in the light, "I'm actually a woman."

"_EH!?_"

* * *

Later in the evening when everything settled down and everyone went to their respective rooms, Chi called Tsuna.

"You doing okay, Chi?"

She sighed, "I'm fine, although that 'visitor' we were expecting is a friend of Reborn-san's, so I'm not sure how to handle that."

"What!?" Tsuna shouted, "A-are you okay?"

Chi thought back to the day's events.

"_W-woman…?" Chi murmured, her mother sat next to her, still shocked. Mika nodded._

"_That's correct." Chi gave their visitor another look over._

'Th-this can't be right…can it?' _she thought hastily, _'Her shoulders are a little too broad, and her jawbone…no, no, I shouldn't be so close-minded. Some women look more like men and likewise, they're androgynous! Th-that's the word!'

"_I apologize for upsetting you," said Mika, "My physique and voice always fool everyone, not to mention that I grew up with three older brothers…"she trailed off._

"_Oh no, you don't have to apologize," Makoto replied, "It was just a bit of a shock is all."_

"_I understand," she nodded, "Although, I would like to apologize still for any confusion in the future."_

"Chi? Are you okay?" Tsuna repeated.

"Oh, y-yeah, he-er, she's actually pretty nice."

"It's only been one day, this woman might be just as crazy as Reborn," he muttered.

Chi whimpered, "I hope not…a-anyway, what'd I miss?"

"Um…not much…

"…You're holding something back." She heard a muffled smack, probably Tsuna hitting his head on his desk again.

"How do you do that!?"

"Later, could you please tell me what happened?"

"Okay, okay," Tsuna relented, "Well, after you left, Lambo ran outside and I had to chase him and he told me how he met Reborn. When he calmed down, I brought him back home and dinner was ready."

"Okay, and I'm guessing that Reborn-san and Lambo-san were in the same room?"

Tsuna grumbled, "Yeah, Lambo-kun tried throwing a knife at Reborn, but it was knocked back and hit Lambo-kun in the forehead."

Chi flinched.

"…Chi? Are you there? Chi? You okay?"

She shook her head, "I-I will be…is Lambo-san okay?"

"Surprisingly, yeah," She heard him ruffle his hair, "But get this, you know that bazooka he took out earlier?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, he shot himself with it, b-but he turned out fine!" Tsuna shouted, worried that Chi might freeze up again.

"Oh good" She breathed in relief, "What happened next?"

"Well…" he hesitated, "his future self replaced him."

"…huh?"

"Y-yeah, my reaction exactly."

"His 'future self'?"

"Yep."

"O-okay, just keep going, I'm pretty sure my mind will work it all out later."

"Well, his future self was pretty calm at first, he said hello to me and called me 'Vongola' and told me that it was 'Future Lambo' and he was looking around for you, calling you, 'Chi-nee'."

"'Vongola'?"

"I know, weird, but then when he saw Reborn, he tried attacking him and everything just…blew up. Literally."

"I would say that you were joking, but knowing Reborn-san, that's pretty plausible…"

He sighed, "Nothing's going to be normal for us anymore, huh?"

Chi sighed, then smiled, "Well, we still have our sleepovers, if that helps."

"Yeah, that's true," he laughed, "Hey, it's getting late, we should be getting to bed. Wouldn't want to be late to school."

Insert short pause.

"No way!" they said simultaneously, laughing.

* * *

After everyone had gone to bed, Mika stepped outside, waiting for someone.

"Evening, Michael," greeted Reborn, "How'd they take it? Learning that you're a woman?"

Mika snorted, "Shut up, you knew exactly how they'd react."

Reborn let out a short chuckle, "Not my fault you look more like a man than a woman, but moving on, you're going to start tomorrow, right?"

Mika sighed, "Yeah, it's better to start building her strength and stamina now rather than later."

"You don't want what happened to the Ninth's guardian to happen to her," Reborn concluded.

"From what you told me, and what I've learned about her so far," said Mika, twisting the ring on her finger and looking vaguely depressed, "I don't think she'd mind."

* * *

The next morning, Tsuna and Chi groggily made their way to school. Spending most of last night playing video games was obviously not a good idea.

Next to her, Tsuna yawned.

"Man, we stayed up really late last night."

"I know," Chi replied, "But you really wanted to go grinding, and I was there to make sure you didn't die so much."

"Haha, very funny," Tsuna grumbled, good-naturedly, "Maybe you should try making a swordsman instead of a priest every once in a while."

"Do you want me to bring up my level two hundred assassin again?" she teased. Tsuna playfully shoved her shoulder in mock anger.

"Yo Tsuna, Chi!" Someone called from behind them. Chi froze and tried not to look back.

"Yamamoto-kun!" said Tsuna, "Good morning!"

"G-good m-morning, Y-Yamamoto-san…" Chi forced out.

"What's the matter you guys?" he asked, "You both have bags under your eyes!"

"Actually I always look like this…" she murmured.

"Eh, really?" Yamamoto ruffled the girl's hair playfully, "Hahaha, that's not good, Chi! You need lots of sleep to be healthy!"

Chi whimpered in response, mainly due to the close proximity she had with the cheery teen.

"Well, as long as you guys weren't up all night studying!" he exclaimed.

"Huh?" They said.

Yamamoto laughed, "We wouldn't want to lose part of our slow group, right?"

'_Oh yeah,'_ Chi thought, _'He has remedial classes with us…'_

She suddenly shivered, feeling harsh glares on her back.

Chi sighed quietly, _'So it begins.'_

She shuddered.

* * *

After school Tsuna and Chi were hanging out at the school's pool area. Reborn had asked (well, forced) them to stay there after classes let out.

"Gokudera was rather upset this morning," said Reborn, floating along in the pool, "He doesn't think Yamamoto is trustworthy and is against him joining. So I thought giving Yamamoto a 'Family Entrance Test' would satisfy Gokudera's worrries."

"I'm not gonna go along with that!" cried Tsuna, "And don't go into the pool without permission!"

"Are you sure it's wise to bring in Yamamoto-san?" asked Chi, "I mean, he doesn't really have any ties to the Vongola…wouldn't it be dangerous?"

"That's why I'm giving the test," Reborn explained.

"No way! Yamamoto-kun is our friend!" shouted Tsuna, "Besides, he's too busy with baseball! Don't go dragging him into this!"

"Too late, I already asked Gokudera to bring him to the back of the campus."

"HUH?" they shouted and quickly ran off.

When Tsuna and Chi got to the back of the school, they saw both Gokudera and Yamamoto standing next to each other. It seemed like Yamamoto was trying to offer Gokudera some milk, with Gokudera trying to glare a hole in the tall boy's face.

"Hey!" Tsuna shouted.

"Hm?" Yamamoto turned around and Gokudera hid something behind his back when he caught sight of Tsuna, "Hey guys, what's up? Oh, is that your little brother, Tsuna?"

Not understanding what he meant, Tsuna and Chi looked behind them, Reborn was on a skateboard holding onto a rope that was tied around Tsuna's waist.

"I'm not his brother, I'm an assassin from the Vongola Famiglia," answered Reborn.

"Hahaha!" laughed Yamamoto, "Is that so, forgive me then!"

'_Please tell me he thinks it's a joke…'_ thought a worried Chi.

"You're pretty young for an assassin!"

"Not really," Reborn replied, "You're joining the Vongola too."

"No way!" Tsuna shouted.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, Tsuna, he's just a kid," said Yamamoto, "Don't you remember playing cops and robbers as a kid?"

"Well, we mostly pretended to be knights and samurai…" Chi thought out loud.

"Chi!" Tsuna whispered harshly, his face turning red with embarrassment.

She flinched, "S-sorry…"

"Hahaha!" Yamamoto laughed, "That's sounds like loads of fun!"

"Tsuna's the tenth generation boss of the family," Reborn explained.

"Ooh, you made a good choice then!" complimented Yamamoto, hoisting Reborn on his shoulder, "Alright, count me in."

At this response, Tsuna let out his trademark shriek, Gokudera growled and Chi began to mentally freak out.

"So what do I have to do?" Yamamoto asked.

"You need to pass the entrance test, if you can't pass, you can't join, just so you know, failing means death," Reborn said simply.

"Hahaha!" chuckled Yamamoto, "Sounds fun!"

"This test is simple," Reborn whipped out two large, silver pistols, "All you have to do is avoid my attacks. Mifune, you're going somewhere else."

"Wh-what?" she stammered.

"Hold on!" Tsuna shouted, "Where's she going?"

"Tch, she'd just get in the way if she stayed," grumbled Gokudera.

"Eh? She's not going to play?" asked Yamamoto.

"I got a tutor for her," replied Reborn.

"Wait," Chi began to turn paler than she usually was, "D-do you mean…Mika-san?"

"Yes, I do," Reborn turned around, "You can come out now, Michael."

"'Michael'?" inquired the others. They spotted a young 'man' stepping out from behind the school building, now sporting a black button up shirt and faded navy blue jeans. 'Michael' sighed, walking closer to the group.

"Enough with calling me that, it's Mika," she corrected.

"Don't you want to use the name your parents gave you?" Reborn asked.

"It's only going to confuse the kids," she explained.

"Who're you calling, 'kids'?" Gokudera growled. Mika walked forward, nonchalantly patting the teen on the head.

"Alright kid, come on, I need to give you a run down for our training sessions," said Mika to Chi.

"Wait just one minute!" yelled Tsuna, "Where are you taking her!?"

"Calm down, we're just going to the park."

"Th-the park?" Chi squeaked. Mika nodded.

"Just the park, don't worry, it's pretty much empty right now."

"Hurry it up, Mika," ordered Reborn, "I need to start the test."

She put an arm around Chi and began dragging her off the school grounds, "Don't worry, Sawada Tsunayoshi, she'll be fine," Mika said over her shoulder.

Chi whimpered as the two left, listening to the faint sounds of explosions and shooting guns.

* * *

Once reaching the mostly empty park, Mika sat her student on a bench.

"Alright kid, first things first," she folded her arms across her chest, "How much time do you spend with Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"Huh?" Chi blinked and tilted her head in thought, "W-well…we walk together to and from school and hang out until evening, a-and we usually have sleepovers…"

"So pretty much all day everyday, huh?"

Chi nodded meekly. Mika leaned against the back of the bench and rubbed her chin.

"Okay then, I'll let you walk with him and I'll give you Sunday to hang out," she said, "But you'll be spending a couple hours with me after school every day. However, the schedule may change depending on Reborn's plans."

"O-okay…" Chi answered. Mika sighed.

"No need to be so skittish, I'm not as tough as Reborn," explained Mika, "I'm going to be working on building your endurance, speed and stamina. But, I won't be pushing you till you fall flat on your face."

"O-oh…thank you?"

"No problem, I don't want you trying to die early…_again_."

Chi flinched and turned white. She pushed down the urge to reach for the side of her head.

Letting the silence between them stretch a little longer, Mika closed her eyes and let out a large sigh, "Come on kid, we're walking home."

* * *

It was evening again and this time Tsuna was staying over at Chi's house.

The two were in her room. It wasn't big or too small and there was a short table in the middle of the room. Her bed was against the wall and under a window, a nightstand on the other side. Her desk was a few feet away from the foot of her bed and her closet (which held more books than clothes) was also a few feet away from her nightstand. There was a small television on top of a short cabinet against the wall opposite of her closet with various games on the shelves and some consoles in front.

And like many other geeky/nerdy teenagers her age, posters of video game and anime characters littered her walls.

Tsuna and Chi were currently playing a fighting game, and Chi was winning this time.

As the ending battle theme played, Tsuna groaned and fell back, "Aw man!"

"Justice!" she cheered. Then they heard Makoto knocking on the door.

"It's almost time for bed, you two!" she warned, "Go brush your teeth!"

"Yes, Mom!"

"Yes, Auntie Makoto!"

After washing up, Tsuna and Chi flopped onto the bed, wrinkling the mint green comforter. They shifted around until they were both facing the ceiling, illuminated by the streetlights.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay, Chi?" Tsuna asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm sure, why do you ask?"

"Well, other than being worried about you, you looked a lot paler than usual when you came home."

"Y-you know how I am," she stuttered.

He chuckled, "You always freak out about everything more than I do."

Chi blushed, "W-well, there's nothing wrong with feeling uncomfortable in the presence of…o-of…!"

"Everything?" said Tsuna, still laughing.

The two talked for a few more minutes before letting their heads hit the pillows with a 'fwhump!'

Saying their goodnights, Chi stayed awake a little longer, glancing outside the window, her hand grasping Tsuna's.

'_How did she know?'_ she thought, a cold shiver ran up and down her spine. A faint numbing pain throbbed in her head and around her old scars.

Chi's free hand traced the impression on her stomach through her shirt, an unfortunate reminder of when she had cut deeper than usual.

She didn't sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

(1): Karaage- Japanese fried chicken using potato starch and marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic and fresh ginger.

* * *

Chi was going grocery shopping for today while her mother and Mika were airing out the futons.

Yesterday, the young woman had taken Chi to the park again for her first training exercise.

"_Okay, today, we'll be working on endurance," said Mika, her hands on her hips and looking around at the empty park, "The equipment I have with me will have weights on it," She waved her hand at what seemed to be some sort of carrier designed to hold something rather heavy._

_Chi swallowed and spoke up, "H-how…?"_

_Mika placed her hand on top of the girl's head, "Don't worry, I'll start you off with just wearing the carrier, as the days go by, I'll be putting one five pound weight on the carrier and I'll add on another one every few days, alright?"_

_Chi nodded weakly._

She still felt sore. The carrier had been unexpectedly light, but she and Mika had walked laps around the park, then started to lightly jog and at the end, Mika had her run as hard as she could without stop. Chi sighed and shifted the bags in her arms to rub her shoulder.

She then decided to stop by the music store on her way back, it had a beautiful grand piano on display and the owner usually had someone come in to play.

Standing outside the store where others had already gathered, Chi saw that the pianist was currently playing.

A tall girl was sitting in front of a large grand piano that was being showcased in front of the store. Her long fingers were gracefully dancing across the black and white keys allowing the notes to flow together in an elegant harmony known to the world as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. As the girl's body gently swayed in turn with her playing, so did her lengthy crimson hair whose ends were inches away from the floor.

Giving the world outside the music store a quick, passing glance, passersby would catch a glimpse of deep sapphire outlined in black, drawn in such a way to give her eyes a catlike quality. The girl was wearing beige shorts and a long-sleeved mint green shirt outlining a curvy figure with a pair of plain, dark-brown, slip-on shoes and a mismatched gray and blue pair of striped stockings.

This girl had been playing at this music store for a few weeks and already garnered a small following.

Chi wished she could have stayed a little longer, but she had to go home before the produce and fish spoiled in the heat.

* * *

Inside the music store, the song had come to an end, the red-haired girl stood up, the storekeeper coming to speak with her.

"A wonderful performance, once again, dear!" she said. The girl smiled.

"Thanks for hiring me," the storekeeper 'tsk'ed.

"I can't let talent like that go to waste!" she retorted. The girl let out a short laugh.

"I'm not that good," the girl took out a cell phone and looked at the time, "S'it okay if I get the rest of the day off? I've got something important to do today."

"Not a problem! Go ahead."

"Thanks!" the girl called out.

Stepping outside, the girl looked through her cell phone's history, stopping when she got to a message that held directions.

Sighing, she murmured to herself, "I hope you know what you're doing, Reborn…"

* * *

**Tsuna's house**

After helping her mom put away the groceries, Chi went over to Tsuna's house to help him with some of his math homework and Mika stayed behind to learn some Japanese recipes from Makoto.

When Chi arrived, she noticed that there was a distinct lack of Gokudera.

"Hey, Reborn?" Tsuna asked, "Where's Gokudera-kun?"

Turning to look at them from his place at the windowsill, he replied, "Gokudera's going to be a little busy today, but he might come by."

Tsuna and Chi then gave each other a look and silently agreed that they should be worried, but for what, they didn't know.

* * *

**Somewhere in Namimori…**

The red-haired girl stopped in front of an apartment complex, one hand in the pocket of her shorts, the other holding her cell phone.

Letting out a breath, she quietly said, "Well, this is the place…"

Taking another glance at her phone's screen, she memorized the room number and put the phone away.

Reaching the room, she took in a breath and hesitantly knocked on the door, holding her breath as she waited.

She could hear the footsteps coming closer and she bit the inside of her lip as the door was opened.

"What the hell do you w-…Eva?"

She gave the boy in the doorway a nervous gaze.

"Hey, Hayato," she greeted meekly. He gave her a flat look before turning around and heading towards the middle of the living room, leaving the door open.

Taking this as an invitation, she walked in closing the door as she did, and followed him to the couch.

There was a tense silence as the two sat there. Gokudera was looking at her with an indescribable emotion in his green eyes and Eva looking back with the same expression.

Not being able to handle the silence any longer, Eva spoke first, "L-look, I know you probably don't want me here, b-but Reborn told me that you were in Japan a-and…" she sighed harshly, "I-I understand if you want me to leave, I-I'll go and you'll never have to deal with me again!"

Breathing a bit heavily, Eva bowed her head, not wanting to face him.

Gokudera let out a scoff, "Do you remember what today is?"

Eva raised her head, a curious look on her face, "Hm?" Thinking quickly, her eyes widened, "A-ah, i-it's the day I stopped…coming to visit you…"

"Why?" he asked bluntly.

"I…I had to leave…" she replied quietly, shrinking under his gaze.

Green eyes narrowed, "Was someone in my family threatening you?"

"N-no! No," she shook her head, "I-it, it's something…personal."

"And you don't want to tell me?"

Eva nodded, "Not yet…anyway, but I swear I'll tell you."

"Good enough, now tell me where the hell you've been all this time, you've better have been practicing," Gokudera crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch.

Sinking into the cushions, Eva let out a relieved sigh, "I have, I picked up the violin too, I was hoping maybe we could play Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor together maybe."

* * *

**Back at Tsuna's house**

Tsuna and Chi were quietly studying under the intense stare of a tiny tutor wielding a rather impressive emerald green shotgun.

"Tsuna, go tell Mama that you're expecting guests," ordered Reborn.

"Wha-? What guests?" Tsuna exclaimed right before Reborn decided to jump-kick him right out the door.

"Go," he repeated.

Chi ran towards the open door, "Tsu-Tsuna! Are you okay?"

"M'fine," came the muffled response. Realizing she was alone with the baby tutor, Chi turned to Reborn.

"Reborn-san?" she asked nervously, "A-about Mika-san…"

He was frowning just a bit as he looked at the shaking teen, "If you're wondering how Mika knows about your suicide attempt, remember that she and I don't accept a mission without some knowledge of our targets."

Swallowing, Chi forced herself to start speaking as she felt her body beginning to lock up, "W-well, I was wondering about that, b-but I also wanted to know…who exactly are we expecting?"

"An acquaintance of mine," nonchalantly hopping on top of Chi's shoulder, he then said, "Let's go downstairs to greet them."

Reaching the bottom step, Chi heard someone knocking at the door. Tsuna left the kitchen to open it.

"Gokudera," said Reborn, "It's nice of you to join us, and with a friend of yours."

Tsuna and Chi looked at each other in confusion. The girl next to the silver-haired bomber laughed.

"I'll introduce myself," Eva bowed with a sweep of her arm, "Shimizu Eva, at your service, Boss."

"EH?" they shouted.

"Don't tell me you're involved in this mafia business too!" Tsuna cried.

"Now it's just random people off the street?" Chi rubbed her temples, trying to analyze the information.

Eva laughed, "He's pretty energetic, huh Hayato?"

Gokudera nodded proudly, "Of course he is, the boss needs the energy to take care of the family!"

"E-eh, Shimizu-san, how did you meet Gokudera-san?" Chi asked warily.

"Well, it all started when we were just tiny toddlers in Italy," she clasped her hands together and held them to her chest, "I, a lowly orphan, made contact with the ever-so-handsome Gokudera Hayato!"

"'Orphan'?" Tsuna and Chi voiced.

Eva nodded, "I'll tell you guys the details later, by the way," she turned to look at Chi, "Hayato neglected to mention that Boss had such a cute friend~."

"Eh, cute?"

"What's your name? Huh? Huh?" she asked excitedly, putting her face near the shorter girl.

Leaning back a bit, Chi replied, "M-Mifune Chi…"

Eva's eyes began to sparkle brightly, "Ah! Such a cute name!"

Then she clung onto Chi and squeezed.

"Ah! Chi-chan!" Eva gasped, pulling away from the shorter girl, "You're so thin! You should really eat more! And the bags under your eyes! You should really get more sleep!"

Chi, unfortunately, had passed out as the hug was too tight.

* * *

The next day at school, the teacher announced the arrival of a new student.

"Everyone, please welcome, Shimizu Eva," Eva was standing in front of the class wearing the female uniform, her flowing red tresses in a ponytail.

There was a lot of whispering going on from the other students.

"Hey, you think that red is her natural color?"

"There's no way her eyes could be that blue…"

"I wanna say she's wearing make-up, but those markings around her eyes don't look like mascara…"

"Hey, isn't she that piano player…?"

Back to Eva, she was bowing, "My name is Shimizu Eva. Please take care of me!"

"Looks like this 'family' is going to keep growing, huh Tsuna?" whispered Chi to Tsuna.

"I just wish Reborn would stop forcing me to do things I don't want…" he grumbled. Chi rubbed his shoulder in sympathy.

It was the weekend again and Chi was over at Tsuna's (no surprise). They were starting a new video game that they had bought and after awhile the two decided to go buy some snacks.

"Man, it's so hot today…" noted Tsuna, covering his eyes from the sun's rays beating down on us.

"No kidding," agreed Chi, "Hey, think we could fry an egg on the sidewalk?"

They laughed.

_Ring-Ring_

Tsuna and Chi looked back, seeing a young woman on a bike heading their way. She stopped near them and took off her helmet revealing her face.

'A foreigner?' thought Chi. The young woman reached into the basket connected to her bike.

"Here, have one," she said, tossing Tsuna a soda can and riding off.

True to Tsuna's unfortunate clumsiness, the can hit his forehead, and it dropped to the ground causing it to open.

"You okay, Tsuna?" asked Chi.

"Yeah," he sighed, "That was so uncool…"

"Could've been worse," she tried to reassure him.

Tsuna and Chi then noticed that the soda that spilled out was suddenly bubbling ominously, releasing a noxious, purple fume that apparently affected a crow since it just fell from the sky and was currently foaming at the mouth.

"Waaaah!" They jumped back.

"What the heck is going on!" Tsuna shouted.

Chi was tugging gently on his sleeve, "L-let's just head back."

When they got back to the house, they were greeted by Reborn who was covered in beetles.

"Oh? You're both back," he greeted. Before Tsuna could reply angrily, Chi had fainted from fear of the large beetles crawling all over the baby tutor's face.

From the kitchen, Mika stepped out, "Hey I heard you guys…come…in…?" She stared at Chi's unconscious form, "Ah, her infamous faints."

"M-Mika-san!" Tsuna shouted after hearing the explanation about Reborn's beetles, "What are you doing here?"

"Hm?" Mika was picking up Chi to place her on the couch, "Your mother offered to teach me some of her favorite recipes, figured I could learn something new. And Reborn, I heard you mention 'Bianchi'?"

Reborn nodded, a particularly large beetle crawling across his face, "She's in town and will most likely be headed here."

Mika scoffed, "Seriously? I hate hearing her 'Love' talk."

_Ding-Dong_

"Italian pizza delivery," came a muffled voice from outside.

"Hm?" Tsuna opened the door, "H-Hey! You're that woman we saw on the street!"

The young woman quickly put on a gas mask and opened the pizza box she held, an odorous smoke immediately spewed out.

Tsuna began to choke and fell to the floor while Reborn shot at the box and Mika was threatening the woman with her own pistol, the barrel placed right against the woman's forehead.

"Poison Scorpion Bianchi," Mika muttered lowly. Bianchi's eyes widened.

"Michael Acedia…" she breathed, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking care of a student," Mika answered curtly, "And why the hell are you here and trying to kill _children_?"

Bianchi didn't bother to answer since she caught sight of Reborn, "Reborn~!" she gushed.

Mika groaned and picked up Chi from the couch, "Tsunayoshi-san, could you please tell your mother I'm leaving early?"

"E-eh? Ah, sure…"

Waking up later that evening, Chi had dragged herself to the bathroom to get rid of her grogginess. One refreshingly cold shower later, Chi decided to call Tsuna.

"Her name's Bianchi?" She asked, drying her hair.

"Yeah, Reborn said she's more commonly known as 'Poison Scorpion Bianchi' because she makes people eat her 'poison cooking'," explained Tsuna.

"Well, that explains the weird soda." On the other side, Tsuna groaned.

"I can't believe she'd go all this way just to kill me!" Chi tilted her head slightly.

"But isn't that what assassins do?" Chi heard Tsuna beginning to ruffle his hair.

"She wanted to kill me because I was, apparently, taking up all of Reborn's time!" Tsuna complained, "If she wants him, she can have him!"

"She sounds like she's obsessed," she noted, "And that's never a good thing."

"Hm? How so?"

"Remember Yamamoto-san and his arm?"

"O-oh, yeah…"

"Obsession can really mess with your life," Chi explained, "We should be more careful if we meet more people like Bianchi-san."

"Right, that's a good plan," agreed Tsuna.

They both sighed.

"But knowing our luck, we'll attract those kinds of people no matter what," Tsuna moaned.

"W-well, let's just try and look on the bright side of things," Chi assured, "Tomorrow, my Home Economics class is making riceballs for the boys, and Sasagawa-san's in that class."

"Oh yeah! That's right!" Chi could almost feel the cheery air emanating from him through the phone. She suddenly found it hard to swallow.

"It's getting late," Chi informed, "Get some sleep, okay Tsuna?"

"You too," he said, "Good night, Chi."

"Good night, Tsuna."

_Click_

Chi put her phone on her nightstand and laid down, tossing her towel at the foot of the bed.

'_Why does talking about Sasagawa-san make my chest feel like its being crushed?'_ she sighed and turned off the lamp, falling into a fitful sleep.

* * *

While walking to school the next day Tsuna and Chi were discussing what the home economics class was doing that day.

"Well, our teacher said we could make some pastries if we finish our riceballs early," Chi explained, "Though, I don't understand why no one would be able to finish making three riceballs in the first ten minutes…"

Tsuna laughed, "They don't have a mom like yours, Chi. That's why!"

Chi blushed, "W-well, still! It's not that hard to make one!"

"Hm? Sawada-kun? Mifune-san?"

Chi froze. Tsuna looked behind them and his face instantly brightened, "K-Kyoko-chan!"

"Good morning, Sawada-kun!" she giggled, "You don't mind if we walk together, do you?"

"E-eh…" Tsuna glanced at Chi who, hesitantly, shook her head, "O-of course not!

'_That laugh still bothers me…'_ Chi thought, looking away.

_Ring-Ring_

"Hm?" The three turned around.

Tsuna and Chi saw Bianchi coming right at them on her bike. She sped by, tossing three cans of soda, which Tsuna quickly smacked away using his bag as a weapon.

After that, they ran towards the school.

"Mmm…" Chi mumbled, "Let's see, three riceballs…Tsuna's is just umeboshi, I'll give it to him after class, wouldn't want Sasagawa-san to get the wrong idea. Yamamoto-san is…tuna, but he'd be surrounded by his fans…still, he _is_ a friend, and Gokudera-san…um, he looks like someone who likes savory foods…a piece of _karaage_?" **(1)**

"Hey, Chi-chan!" called a voice from behind her. Chi reluctantly turned to look.

"A-ah, Sh-Shimizu-san…"

"What're you gonna put in your riceballs?" Eva's blue eyes were glittering with excitement, "I'm going to put some vegetables in Hayato's, he needs to eat healthy since he's sucking on those cancer sticks day in and day out. And if I'm going to be the family doctor, I have to start making sure everyone starts eating healthy!"

"O-oh, um," Chi stuttered, not used to talking to other people in this class, "I'm going to put umeboshi in Tsuna's, fish in Yamamoto-san's, and some fried chicken in Gokudera-san's."

Eva's brows quirked, "'Yamamoto-san'? Who's he?"

"H-he's the school's top baseball player, he's tall, has short spiky hair, and…um, amber eyes…?" she tried to describe.

"Oh! That guy, he seems pretty cool, I guess," said the other girl plainly.

"That's why he's popular…" Chi murmured.

While the two finished shaping the riceballs, Eva spoke again.

"So, Chi-chan."

"Y-yes?" she asked.

"You and the Boss seem to be pretty close," said the tall girl, "Considering that you two don't use any honorifics for each others' names, isn't that a big thing in Japanese culture? I mean, I heard that even married couples and lovers still use honorifics."

"W-we've been friends for a long time…" Chi muttered.

"Even so, it's rare for people in Japan to call each other without them, isn't it?" she asked.

"Mmm…" Chi murmured uncomfortably.

Eva sighed quietly, noticing she was making the shorter girl nervous. She decided to change the subject.

"Since we finished early, what pastry are you gonna make, Chi-chan?"

"A-ah, I was planning on m-making berry tarts…" Eva's eyes brightened.

"Oooh! Are you gonna use blueberries? Those are really good for memory!" she exclaimed, "They have a bunch of antioxidants and stuff!"

Chi nodded hesitantly, "I bought some fresh fruit yesterday…I-I'm going to put in sliced strawberries and raspberries too…"

Eva hummed excitedly, "Ah~ Those sound sooo good! I wanna eat one!"

"Wh-what are you going to make, Shimizu-san?"

"Hm…a small chiffon cake with strawberries," she said, "Chiffon cakes are pretty light in fat since it uses vegetable oil instead of butter."

"I-I see…"

As the period was reaching its end, the teacher clapped her hands, stopping all conversation, "Alright everyone! Time to give away your riceballs!"

* * *

The boys in class were all abuzz when the girls came in. Eva had already sped to Gokudera, offering her riceballs and strawberry chiffon cake, to which he accepted with a wary look.

Chi looked around the classroom and saw that Yamamoto was already surrounded by his fangirls.

Looking over at Tsuna, Chi saw him eying Kyoko's riceballs. His eyes flickered over to Chi and they both silently agreed to meet up after class for Tsuna's riceballs.

Sighing, Chi caught some movement out of the corner of her eye.

'_Bianchi-san?' _thought Chi nervously, _'Wh-what did she just do? H-hey, why are there maggots coming out of those riceballs? S-since when were they purple?'_

Tsuna noticed too, he was looking around frantically to see if anyone could tell.

"Sawada-kun, do you want one?" asked Kyoko.

"Eh, u-uh…" he stuttered.

"You don't like salmon?"

"N-no, no! I-it's not like that!" he was waving his arms around wildly. Yamamoto and Gokudera walked up behind him.

"If you don't want them, Boss, we'll take them!" said Gokudera.

"Good idea, Gokudera!" Yamamoto agreed.

"W-wait!" cried Tsuna.

"Ah!" Chi squeaked, trying to stop them along with Tsuna, but he was already moving.

"You'll die if you if those!" and he tossed them up in the air.

Then, Chi heard a faint _bang!_ coming from outside and something hit Tsuna in the forehead and stomach.

"Oh dear…" she trailed, her body feeling a bit weak as she witnessed Tsuna running around and causing chaos while eating all the riceballs.

"Ah, ah," Eva tutted, she took the riceballs out of Chi's hands and held them up in the air, "Wouldn't want him to eat those without savoring them, right?"

"A-ah, th-thank you…" Chi whispered.

"No problem," chuckled Eva, "Just try and stay standing until the boss calms down."

Once everything settled down, the class filed out, leaving Tsuna, Chi, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Eva behind.

While walking out, Chi overheard Kyoko's friend, Hana, talking to her.

"Guess you can take that as Sawada's declaration of love, Kyoko."

'…_?'_ Chi choked, _'Why do I feel out of breath?'_

"That was an incredibly manly thing to do, Boss," commented Gokudera.

"Way to go, Tsuna!" laughed Yamamoto.

"Huh?" Tsuna asked.

"Shouting, 'I'll kill anyone who eats the riceballs Kyoko-chan gave me!'" Gokudera recited, "Just what I'd expect from you, Boss!"

Eva let out an amused scoff and gave Chi back her riceballs, "Right…sure, that's what happened…"

Walking closer to Tsuna, Chi held out her three riceballs, still in perfect shape, "Here Tsuna, a riceball with umeboshi."

Sighing, Tsuna took one, "Thanks, Chi," he said, gratefully.

"I made one for you guys too," She held them out to Yamamoto and Gokudera.

"Hahaha, thanks Chi! These look great!"

"…They're okay," said Gokudera begrudgingly.

"Oh, admit it, you like them~!" teased Eva, "Just wait until you guys eat her berry tarts!"

"Hey! You're the new student, Shimizu Eva, right?" asked Yamamoto.

"Yep, yep!" she greeted, "And you're Yamamoto Takeshi, right? Mind if I call you 'Yama-tan'?"

"Hahaha! Sure!" he laughed, "S'okay if I call you, 'Eva-chan'?"

"It's perfectly fine!"

"Oi! Eva!" shouted Gokudera, "Don't get so friendly with him! We can't completely trust him!"

"Aw, c'mon," whined Eva, "Can't I make friends?"

While this was going on, Tsuna was shrinking under the combined glares of the boys that were still in the room.

Tsuna and Chi whimpered.


	13. Chapter 13

Once more Chi was spending the weekend over at Tsuna's while their mothers went out grocery shopping and just spending the day together. Mika had been called back to Italy and was going to be gone for the week, so the two decided to spend as much time together as they could before Chi had to train with the older woman again. Tsuna and Chi were coming back from checking out the new releases at the game store and bookstore.

"Man, it's so hot…" Tsuna complained, "Let's go hangout in my room and turn on the AC."

"That's a good plan," Chi replied, wiping some sweat off her forehead, "Mmm…" she sighed.

"What's up?" asked Tsuna.

"That new game we wanted is for a system we don't have…" she explained, "And we already spent a good chunk of our savings during the manga sale last weekend…"

"Oh yeah…" Tsuna scratched his head, "And we bought that other game we wanted too, huh?"

Upon reaching the Sawada house, Tsuna and Chi greeted Nana.

"Mom, I'm home!" he announced.

"We're back, Auntie Nana," said Chi.

"Ah, welcome back you two~!" Nana greeted cheerfully, "Reborn-kun and his friends are up stairs, I think they're in you room, Tsu-kun."

"Huh? Why my room?!" Tsuna and Chi ran upstairs and opened the door and ended up hitting something.

"Lambo-san?" Chi asked.

"Reborn!" shouted Tsuna, "What are you doing in my room?!"

"B-Bianchi-san?" Chi squeaked.

"Oh? You're both home," Bianchi turned around, holding a large glass bowl containing various insects and a bubbling purple mass, "I made some for the both of you, eat up."

Chi whimpered and her body went weak. She was trying to keep herself standing against the wall while Tsuna was arguing with Reborn and Bianchi.

"What is she still doing here!" Tsuna shouted.

"I'm trying to improve my cooking," replied Bianchi, smoothly.

"Reborn! Do something! Make her leave!" yelled Tsuna.

_Ding-Dong_

"Hm?" Tsuna and Chi looked towards the door.

"Boss!"

"Chi-chan~!"

The pair reluctantly went downstairs and opened the door to let in Gokudera and Eva, the latter immediately clinging on to Chi.

"Chi-chan~!" she squealed, "Hello, my little adorable friend you~!" she began to rub her cheek against Chi's.

"…H-hi…" the shorter girl squeaked, trying to loosen Eva's grip.

"Aaah, we need to get some meat on those sticks you call arms, Chi-chan," sighed Eva.

"Gokudera-kun, Eva-san, w-what brings you here?" asked Tsuna.

Gokudera was all grins, "Want to share this melon?" he held up a net holding round, green melon, "Eva picked it out, we're told it's really sweet."

"I can make a fruit salad for us," said Eva, pausing in her unconscious attempt to suffocate Chi.

"I-I really appreciate it, b-but now's not really the best time…" Tsuna trailed off.

Gokudera suddenly glared, "There's someone causing you trouble, isn't there?"

Eva quickly let go, "We'll take care of it for you, Boss!"

"Eh…well…" Tsuna rubbed the back of his head, he looked at Chi who was rubbing her sore neck.

Tsuna stared hard at her, eyes motioning towards his room.

She shrugged.

Breaking off the silent conversation, Tsuna continued, "W-well, there's actually someone here…"

Gokudera dropped the melon and Eva began looking nervous.

"N-nee-san!" Gokudera forced out.

"A-ah, Bianchi…" Eva cautiously took a step back.

"Hayato…and Eva…" Bianchi-san looked somewhat happy until she saw the red-haired girl, she frowned a bit.

"Gaah," Gokudera gagged, "S-sorry!" he ran outside.

"Gokudera-kun!/Gokudera-san!" Tsuna and Chi shouted.

"Hayato!" Eva called after.

Bianchi sighed, "He always does that…how strange."

"H-hold on…'nee-san'…" Tsuna gripped his hair, "Those two are related!?"

"Yes, but with different mothers," Reborn replied calmly.

"Eva, may I speak with you in the kitchen?" Bianchi asked pleasantly, a malicious air beginning to surround the lavender-haired woman.

"Yeah," she said uncomfortably, "sure."

Tsuna and Chi ran after Gokudera.

* * *

**Sawada Kitchen**

Bianchi punched Eva in the face. Eva turned her head, and coughed into her sleeve.

"We really shouldn't roughhouse in the kitchen," Eva mumbled, "The knives are dangerous, we're also guests here, so we shouldn't be making a mess."

"Why the hell did you leave?!" Bianchi asked angrily.

Eva looked at Bianchi, wiping the rest of the blood oozing from her mouth, "If I didn't tell Hayato, then I'm obviously not telling you."

Bianchi kneed Eva in the stomach. The red-haired girl stumbled back a few steps.

"Why didn't you tell him?!" Eva sighed and bit the inside of her cheek.

"I'm planning to," Eva stressed, "If I'm going to tell anyone, it'd be Hayato first."

Bianchi glared, "You talked this over with him, then?"

"Of course," Eva crossed her arms over her chest, "Whatever Hayato wants to hear, I'll tell him, though sometimes not immediately."

Bianchi sighed harshly, "Just make sure you tell him soon, and when you do, tell _me_."

"I will," Eva rubbed her stomach gingerly, "Geez, if you hit any harder, my womb could've been damaged," she joked.

The Italian woman let out a cold laugh, "Ha! Like we need more people like you in the world."

Eva smiled sadly, "Good point, who knows what they might do to the people they love."

Tsuna and Chi were walking back with Gokudera after the two were able to catch up with him.

Tsuna and Chi were quietly discussing the story the silver-haired teen told them earlier.

"Poor Gokudera-san, being forced to eat all those poisonous cookies…" mumbled Chi holding her stomach.

"Y-yeah, being fed that stuff for every concert…" Tsuna turned worrying shade of green.

"I wonder," Chi held her chin, "Wouldn't that be bad for his psyche too? I mean, it's like Pavlov's Dog…"

"Who's dog?"

"Pavlov's Dog," explained Chi, "Think about it, being fed something poisonous every time he had to perform, if he tried playing now, I doubt Gokudera-san could play without feeling deathly ill even though he didn't eat any poisonous food."

"Poor Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna looked ahead were the teen in question was walking, shoulders hunched and head turning every which way, looking out for 'assassins'.

The rest of the walk home was spent planning on how to drive Bianchi out of town since the three discovered that the young woman's ex looked suspiciously like an older version of a certain toddler in cow-print.

* * *

When the trio got back to Tsuna's house, they quietly walked upstairs, noting that Bianchi was in the kitchen and Eva and Reborn were nowhere to be found.

They had gone into Tsuna's room and found a napping Lambo.

"Hm?" Chi looked around, "Shimizu-san isn't here…"

Gokudera grumbled, "She probably left," he explained, "I doubt she and my sister are on good terms right now."

"What do you mean?" she asked. He snorted and turned away.

"That's Eva's story to tell, not mine."

Tsuna sighed.

"What's wrong, Boss?"

"Lambo's being stubborn," Tsuna answered, "I'm gonna go and find Reborn."

Chi blinked in confusion, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Tsuna started walking downstairs, "Well, Lambo uses the bazooka when Reborn upsets him, so why not?"

Stepping out of the room, Chi noticed that Gokudera didn't move, "Gokudera-san, aren't you coming?"

"I-I think I'll stay up here," he stammered, "I'm not risking being found out by my sister."

Tsuna and Chi went out back and found Reborn drying himself off after stepping out of a small inflatable pool.

"Reborn!" Tsuna called, "I need a favor," he clapped his hands together, as if he were praying, "Could you bother Lambo?"

"No," was the curt reply.

"Wha-Why not?" Tsuna asked.

"I told you, I don't deal with the lower ranks."

"GYAHAHA!" came a voice from somewhere above the three, "YOU WON'T BE SAYING THAT MUCH LONGER, REBORN!"

Tsuna and Chi looked above and saw Lambo standing on the roof.

"DIE REBORN!" he shouted, "I'LL ZAP YOU TO DEATH WITH THE STUN GUN FROM MY BOSS!"

Jumping off from the roof, Chi moved to catch him, Tsuna had held her back.

"Chi! Be careful!" he tugged her back just before Lambo was "zapped" by his own weapon and landed in the pool.

"L-lambo-kun!" Chi shouted.

"WAAAAAH!" he cried and pulled out his Ten-Year Bazooka.

_BOOM_

Tsuna's backyard was suddenly engulfed in pink smoke.

The two teens coughed, waving away the dense, pink clouds.

"Hm?" said a voice, "Why am I soaking in water?"

"Huh?" Tsuna and Chi stared in amazement.

"It's Adult Lambo!" Tsuna began shouting for Bianchi.

"Lambo-san?" Chi asked.

'Adult Lambo' looked over at her, one eye was closed but both opened when he caught sight of the familiar yellow eyes.

"Ah! Chi-nee, it's been a while since you called me that," he chuckled, "It's okay to call me 'Lambo', y'know."

Before she could reply, Bianchi-san came out.

"Romeo!" she cried. Lambo seemed confused and slowly inched closer to Chi.

Bianchi started running towards him with a smile on her face, "Romeo! You're alive!"

In a split second, Bianchi took out a large purple cake, "Die!"

…and slammed it in the older Lambo's face.

"WAAAH!" Tsuna and Chi shouted.

"Bianchi and Romeo were on terrible terms just before they broke up," Reborn explained, "She'd get angry just thinking about him."

"That would've been nice to know earlier!" yelled Tsuna.

"T-Tol...er..ate…" Lambo muttered before passing out.

"Aaah!" Chi screamed, "L-Lambo-san! I mean, Lambo! D-don't die!"

Fortunately, he disappeared back to his time. Once the smoke cleared, the present Lambo appeared, red-faced and sobbing.

"Medical treatment from ten years into the future should be able to save him," commented Reborn-san.

"I hope so…" Chi mumbled, gently rocking an upset Lambo and rubbing his back.

* * *

The next day, while walking home from school, Tsuna and Chi were explaining the story to Gokudera and Eva.

"Is that so…" Gokudera said, a bit downtrodden, "Now that you mention it…I heard that he died of food poisoning…"

Tsuna seemed horrified.

"Poor Lambo-kun…" Chi sighed. Next to her, Eva looked thoughtful.

"Hm, maybe I should look a little deeper into how to treat something like that…" her blue eyes lit up, "I wonder if I'll make any accidental discoveries!" Eva gasped, "Maybe I'll find new way to poison someone!"

Tsuna and Chi sighed heavily, feeling achy.

Tsuna and Chi were walking to school with Reborn following, walking on top of the brick walls surrounding the houses they passed. Chi suddenly felt a cold shiver run down her spine.

"Chi, you okay?" Tsuna asked.

"Y-yeah…" she answered, "I think…"

In front of them, Chi spotted a figure peeking from behind the corner of a brick fence. The figure's face disappeared and a pair of hands gripped at the wall. The figure pulled itself up, revealing itself to be a girl about the same age as Tsuna and Chi.

The girl was wearing a school uniform, her hair was styled into a loose bun and hair clips holding her bangs out of her face. She started walking on the edge, her face flushed and legs shaky.

"Huh?" said Tsuna in disbelief. Chi could only stare nervously, an uncomfortable feeling bubbling inside her stomach.

"H-hi…" the girl greeted, her face blushing darkly.

"Ciaossu," Reborn greeted back.

The girl let out a giggle that made Chi's spine shiver uncomfortably.

"My name is…Miura Haru," she said, her voice high and sounding too cheerful for Chi's comfort.

"I know," replied Reborn curtly, "You live here-" he pointed at the house they were standing next to, "Right?"

Haru grinned, "W-would you be my friend?" she stuttered.

"Sure," he said bluntly. She let out a blissful sigh and jumped off the wall, making an exaggerated landing.

"Yes!" she shouted, throwing her arms out wide, "I did it!"

Unable to handle her energy, Chi quickly hid behind Tsuna, trembling as the girl continued to converse with Reborn.

"I-I know this is out of the blue…" she said, she wrapped her arms around herself, "but will you let me give you a big hug?"

"Huh?" Tsuna and Chi said, dumbfounded.

"Don't get too close," Reborn smirked, pulling out a gun, "I'm an assassin you know."

Haru froze.

"H-hey, Reborn, don't say that in broad daylight-!" Tsuna scolded before being hit in the face.

"Tsu-Tsuna!" Chi whispered loudly, the events causing her to become nervous.

"How could you!" Haru shouted, "Teaching a child to kill! You're the lowest of the low!"

"What!" Tsuna yelled. Chi dug into her bag for her first aid kit.

"Babies are angels with pure hearts…" she growled, "How could you taint that innocence!"

She continued on, accusing Tsuna of corrupting Reborn and making references to purity and other such terms. Fortunately, Reborn was kind enough to interrupt her.

"I'm afraid I can't leave Tsuna," he said calmly. Tsuna turned away grumbling and let Chi press the cold water bottle her mother gave her that morning against his bruised cheek used as a substitute for her missing cold compress.

"It's my job to train Tsuna into the tenth generation boss of the mafia," Reborn explained, "I can't leave him till then."

Tsuna was punched in the face once more, the force pushing Tsuna away from a frantic Chi.

"Grr…" Haru growled, "Corrupting this baby with your mafia talk…" she pointed angrily at Tsuna's face, "This isn't over!"

Chi felt a flush of anger rise, her eyes gaining an ice blue glow and turned to berate Haru for injuring her best friend and blaming him for things he couldn't control, but the girl had already turned and left with a cheerful 'later', leaving the three of them there confused (in Tsuna's case), amused (in Reborn's case), and uncharacteristically angry (in Chi's case).

Continuing on their way, Tsuna looked over at his best friend, "Are you okay, Chi?" he asked, "I don't think I've ever seen you angry like that before, then again, you don't get angry all that easily."

Chi sighed, trembling from the rush of anger, the glow dissipating "I don't like feeling angry…it makes my head hurt…" she looked at Tsuna, "But I'm okay, I'm still feeling that rush…ugh, I really don't like it…"

"Ahaha," chuckled Tsuna, "Maybe we could run to school to get rid of that adrenaline?"

"If you're up for it," challenged Chi. The two sped off.

'_I hate getting angry…'_ thought Chi, remembering certain incidents back when she had fits of anger and shame.

Chi flinched when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach.

Behind them, Reborn stared at the girl with an unidentifiable emotion in his large, onyx eyes.

* * *

The next morning, Tsuna and Chi were walking alone on the way to school.

"Ugh, geez why is it so hot…" Tsuna complained, wiping his forehead. Chi passed him a water bottle.

"Here, it'll help," she said, "Hopefully it'll cool down soon."

_Clank Clank Clank_

"I hope so," said Tsuna, "Because I think I'm starting to hear things…"

_Clank Clank_

"…No, I…I'm starting to hear them too…," Chi confessed worriedly.

_Clank_

The noise had stopped behind them. The two turned around and saw someone dressed in the traditional samurai armor with a hockey stick and motorcycle helmet replacing the sword and normal helmet.

Feeling a bit upset with the obvious mismatch with the armor, Chi couldn't help but say, "What are you doing?"

The person let out a few huffs, "It's me, Miura Haru, my head was spinning so I couldn't sleep…"

"So you wear this when you can't sleep?" Tsuna remarked.

"No! What do you think I am? Some sort of idiot?" she retorted.

"Actually ye-" Chi started but, Haru didn't let her finish.

"If Reborn really is an assassin and you're going to be a mafia boss, then you should be strong," She stated, "If what Reborn said is true, then I won't complain." She placed the motorcycle helmet on her head and raised her hockey stick, "Fight me!"

She brought down the hockey stick with Tsuna and Chi quickly dodging to the left.

"Wait a minute!" Tsuna shouted.

"If you're going to fight us, then at least wear the correct helmet for that armor!" Chi yelled, "Have you no respect for our country's history!?"

"Now isn't the time, Chi!"

* * *

**A little ways away from Tsuna and Chi**

Eva was humming classical tunes while Gokudera was pointing out her flat notes.

"Hm~hmm~hm~hm~" Eva hummed cheerfully, swinging her hand along with Gokudera's as they were walking towards the school, "Ah~ I can't wait to see Chi-chan and Boss~!" she gushed, her blue eyes sparkled, "Chi-chan looks so cute in the school uniform~!"

Gokudera sighed while holding a barely there smile on his face, shaking his head at Eva's 'fangirling', stopping when he heard a commotion, "Hold on, Eva," he jerked his head towards the sounds, "Ah!" his green eyes widened, "It's the boss!"

"Hm?" Eva followed his line of sight, "EH!? And Chi-chan too!"

"We gotta hurry!" shouted Gokudera.

* * *

**Back with Tsuna and Chi**

"I'm trying to tell you that I'm not going to become a mafia boss!" Tsuna yelled, dodging all the strikes Haru was throwing at them.

"Aha!" she called out, "So you ARE taking advantage of Reborn-chan!"

"I'm not!" he shouted.

"She really isn't listening to reason…" muttered Chi.

Haru raised her hockey stick in the air again and was bringing it down once more.

"Boss!"

"Boss! Chi-chan!"

"Wha-!"

Gokudera and Eva had jumped in front of them, both had a look of outrage.

"Stand back, boss!" Gokudera ordered, he took out some dynamite and threw it at the armored girl.

"Eh?" Haru looked up, "Those are…"

_BOOM_

"Oh no!" Tsuna cried out, "She fell in the river!"

Eva looked over the bridge, her expression now looking a bit bored, "Hey, Chi-chan, what's that chick's name anyway?"

"Huh? U-um," Chi stuttered, "U-uh, Miura Haru-san…I think?"

The red-haired girl suddenly gained a dark look in her eyes, "'Miura' huh?" she replied, "Reborn told me about her yesterday."

"Sh-Shimizu-san?" the shorter girl squeaked.

"She was stalking you, Boss, and Reborn yesterday, right?"

"Y-yes…" Chi nodded slowly.

Eva waved her hand in a dismissive manner, "Let her drown!"

"What!" Tsuna and Chi shouted.

"Stalkers and pedophiles, I hate them all!" She exclaimed, shaking her fist in the air, then settled down with a curious, wide-eyed expression, "Besides, I wanna see what a drowned body looks like in person."

"She was stalking you, Boss?" Gokudera asked, "Then we should punish her by letting her drown!"

"Wha-No!" Tsuna cried.

"I'll save her."

"Huh?" They all turned around.

"Reborn-san?" Chi questioned.

The infant was standing at the edge of the bridge, and calmly took out his gun.

"Go, Tsuna," he said shortly and shot.

"Wai-!" The bullet had gone through his forehead, "SAVE MIURA HARU WITH MY DYING WILL!"

He jumped into the water and grabbed Haru, "HOLD ON!"

* * *

Once everything calmed down, we all stood at the riverbank.

"Thank you," Haru mumbled.

"If anything happened to the boss, you wouldn't even be here," Gokudera threatened.

"I still say we should have let her die," grumbled Eva, "Or you could've let me inject a neurotoxin in her or something…" she grinned maniacally, "It would've been fun watching her claw out her throat."

Tsuna and Chi slowly inched away from her.

"Aaaah!" Haru shot up from where she was sitting, "I'll save Haru with my dying will! Hold on to me!" she wrapped her arms around herself, "I only thought people on T.V. would say that~!"

Chi stepped closer to Tsuna, who was still in his underwear, "I think we should start running…" she whispered.

"Sounds like a good idea…" he replied quietly.

"My heart's pounding," continued Haru, "I…I think I'm in love with you, Tsuna-san…"

"What!" they shouted.

"B-but, weren't you in love with Reborn?" Tsuna cried.

"I want to give you a great big hug, Tsuna-san~!" Haru gushed.

"N-no way!" and he ran, dragging Chi with him.

"Oi!" barked Eva, running after them, "Stay away from our boss, you Stalking Pedophile! Don't you dare lay your hands on them! I'll tear you apart with my bare hands!"

* * *

After school, Gokudera and Eva were walking Tsuna and Chi home.

Gokudera was keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings and Eva was grumbling darkly.

"Shimizu-san, is something wrong?" Chi asked, next to the girls, Gokudera was offering to help Tsuna with that day's homework.

"Tch, I'm still pissed off…" she growled.

"Why do you hate stalkers and pedophiles so much, um not that it's okay to like them, but…" Chi tripped over her tongue.

"I seem to have a hate that's deeper than the general public's?" she finished. Chi nodded, covering her mouth after she bit her tongue.

She sighed grumpily, "I was a student working under a very perverted doctor, he's such a damn womanizer…" her eye twitched, "But, I couldn't really deny myself the chance of learning from the infamous mafia doctor."

"But that doesn't really explain why you hate stalkers and pedophiles…" Eva let out another sigh.

"He chases around middle school girls too and tried to feel me up more times than I care to admit…" she answered, "And I just really don't like stalkers, I like my sense of security, y'know?"

"I-I see…" Chi whispered a bit fearfully.

Eva sighed sadly, "I really wish Reborn-san let her drown, it's not everyday you get to see a drowned body, y'know?" Her sapphire eyes glinted, "Or he could've let me use some of my toxins on her, that would've been a delightfully bloody sight to see."

Chi shifted away from her.


	14. Chapter 14

"And of course, Lambo being Lambo, he started blowing up stuff when he saw Reborn!" Tsuna complained.

"I-is everything okay, though?" Chi asked, her hand trembling as she held the phone against her ear.

Tsuna sighed heavily, "Yeah…kinda, Lambo flew out of the house from the explosion and…well, everything calmed down."

"Wh-what? F-flew out of the house?!" Chi stuttered, "And Lambo-kun's still missing!"

It was a supposedly calm morning when Chi left for the convenience store to buy some orange juice. Her mother was at home teaching Mika how to properly care for the vegetable plants and herbs that were growing in the Mifune's backyard.

On the way home, Tsuna called had called to check on her and had then told Chi what happened during breakfast at his house. Lambo had come back and tried to fight Reborn again, which, as one would expect, ended in explosions and stress.

"Where are you right now?" asked Tsuna. Chi looked around.

"I'm near the apartment buildings," She answered.

"Huh? You're not at home?" Chi shook her head, then remembered that they were speaking over the phone.

"We ran out of juice, so my mom asked me to go buy some while she's teaching Mika-san how to grow vegetables and herbs," she replied, "Why do you ask?"

Tsuna let out a small chuckle.

"Well, I was going to ask if you could come over," he explained, "You're not busy today, are you?"

Chi stopped walking and thought, 'Let's see. I finished my homework, made my bed, had breakfast, washed up…'

"I'll ask my mom," she replied, "I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, see ya!"

"Bye," Chi closed her phone and slipped it in her right pocket. Letting out a heavy breath, Chi looked up, using her free hand to shield her eyes.

Summers in Japan could be unbearably hot, and it didn't help that she was wearing all black, although it was a short-sleeved shirt and knee-length shorts, black was not good to wear when you're outside in hot weather.

While Chi was going off into a daze, someone had bumped into her from behind.

"Oof!" they said, "Oh! I-I'm sorry!"

She turned around and saw an auburn-haired boy with glasses, he was carrying a medium-sized crate under one arm and what seemed to be a fuzzy black and white bundle on his back.

"Lambo-kun!" Chi said aloud.

"Eh?" the boy said, "You know him?"

She nodded.

"Great," he breathed, "Could you, maybe help me? I'm trying to get him to this address," he nodded his head at a small slip of paper on the crate.

"S-sure, I don't mind, I-I'm heading there soon anyway," Chi shifted the handles of the bag she was carrying to her wrist and took Lambo off the boy's back, "U-um…m-m-my n-name's, I-I'm sorry, p-please pardon my st-stuttering…" apologized Chi as the two started walking.

"I-Its fine," the boy assured, "I-I know how you feel, my name's Irie Shouichi, what's yours?"

"M-Mifune Ch-Chi," she winced when she accidentally nipped her tongue.

Shouichi chuckled, "Nice to meet you, Mifune-san."

"L-likewise, Irie-san."

Some time later, after Chi made a quick stop by her house to drop off the orange juice and talk to her mom, they reached Tsuna's house, Chi was checking Lambo for any wounds when she heard Shouichi shout out in surprise.

"Irie-san?" She asked, shaken from the scream, "W-what's wrong?"

"Th-there's a woman in a bikini sleeping in the yard!" he shouted, his eyes wide and glasses askew.

"Woman in a bikini?" Chi held her chin, "I don't think Auntie Nana wears bikinis…maybe, Bianchi-san?"

While the girl was caught up in her thoughts, the aforementioned woman was walking up to the pair.

"Did you need something?" she asked.

"E-eh, uh," Shouichi stuttered, "I-I was l-looking for R-Reborn-san…"

The angry air emanating from Bianchi had interrupted Chi's train of thought.

"Are you here to kill him?" the Italian woman accused. Shouichi took a few steps back until he was a few inches behind a pale Chi.

"What's the matter?" asked a squeaky voice, "Ciaossu, Mifune," he greeted.

Chi looked down at him nervously, tightening her grip on Lambo, "G-good morning, Reborn-san…"

"Reborn!" shouted Lambo, waking from his feigned sleep.

"Ah! Lambo-kun!" Chi shouted, reaching for the toddler after he jumped out of her arms.

He removed his horns from his afro and threw them at Reborn, but they were quickly deflected when Reborn had Leon turn into a baseball bat, and knocked Lambo right back into the air.

"L-Lambo-kun…" Chi mumbled feeling faint.

"M-Mifune-san?" Shouichi asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Mifune," said Reborn. The two teens flinched and turned to face him.

"Y-yes, Reborn-san?" the girl replied hesitantly.

"Tsuna's upstairs, I expect he's waiting for you," and he turned back to whatever it was he was doing.

"Y-yes sir…" Chi turned to the bespectacled boy behind her and bowed, "S-sorry Irie-san, I-I have to go…s-see you later…" and she sped upstairs, and tripping along the way, and clung onto Tsuna when she got inside his room.

"Wh-whoa!" Tsuna exclaimed, putting his hands on her shoulders, "What's wrong, Chi?"

Chi took some deep breathes, trying to calm herself down, "I'm expecting explosions and other such loud noises, so excuse me if I faint."

Tsuna let out a shaky laugh, "That so, well you can take over my bed when you do," he patted the head that was taking residence on his shoulder.

Feeling all the anxiety building up, Chi's brain decided to short-circuit and she fell back on Tsuna's bed, hearing him run downstairs shouting about explosions and disturbing the neighbors.

Sometime later, Chi groggily opened her yellow-eyes, quietly groaning and looked over. Tsuna was playing a video game and muttering about Lambo and Bianchi and violent tutors, his frustration translating to the way he was button-mashing his controller.

Hearing her groan, Tsuna got up, "Chi! Are you feeling okay?"

Sitting up, she nodded, "Yeah, what time is it?"

"Around one in the afternoon," he said.

"I was out for awhile then, that's not good," she said, mostly to herself, "Wait, what happened to that boy?"

Tsuna looked confused, "What boy?"

Chi sat up and placed her feet on the floor, "He was walking with me to your house because he found Lambo-kun," she explained, "Irie Shouichi-san, reddish-brown hair, green eyes…Hm, I should've asked which school he went to, he was really nice…" Chi rubbed her forehead, missing the flash of jealousy in her best friend's eyes.

"I didn't see him," he grumbled, going back to the game, _'What was that?'_ he thought.

"What happened after I passed out?" Chi asked, making herself comfortable next to him.

"Lambo and Reborn were fighting each other, Lambo got upset and used the Ten-Year Bazooka on himself, Bianchi thought he was Romeo and a bunch of explosions," Tsuna explained, "The older Lambo was wondering where you were though, he mentioned something about not having seen you in a long time."

Chi froze, "D-does that mean a bomb-happy, five-year-old joins us?"

Tsuna shuddered, "I hope not…"

Tsuna and Chi gave each other a look, and sighed heavily.

"Knowing our luck, we'd get sucked into this, 'mafia', stuff pretty deep," she concluded.

Tsuna passed her the other controller in silent agreement.

The next morning Tsuna and Chi were heading to school, they had stayed up late trying to defeat the final boss of their game, but the boss had continuously healed itself which lead to the two putting it off for another day.

Unfortunately, their late night escapade had caused them to sleep in thus, making them late for school…again.

"M-maybe we should've ran when we got out of the house," Chi pointed out.

"We'll be late no matter how fast we rush," Tsuna grumbled behind her, his head against the girl's shoulder.

"You'll never know unless you try," Chi felt a shiver run down her spine when she heard that voice. Reborn was sitting on top of a wall, pointing a gun at Tsuna.

"Huh? Reborn!" Tsuna had tried to avoid it, but to no avail, "RAAAAH! GET TO SCHOOL WITH MY DYING WILL!"

And once more Chi was dragged along, staring in shock at the torn pieces of Tsuna's uniform behind them.

As she was being pulled along, Chi caught a glimpse of Sasagawa Ryohei, Kyoko's older brother and captain of Nami Middle's boxing team.

'_Eh? Sasagawa-senpai!?'_

He appeared to be reaching out for Tsuna, but his arm ended up getting caught and was quickly taken along.

Thanks to Tsuna's impressive running skills under the influence of the Dying Will Bullet, the three got to the school gates in record time.

"Haah…" Tsuna panted, "Oh man, everyone's gonna make fun of me for running around in my underwear again…"

"…Tsuna?" Chi patted his shoulder, her voice nervous.

"What is it?" he asked. Chi pointed to the hand that wasn't holding hers, "Waah! I was dragging someone else too!?"

The person in question laid facedown in the dirt, "Grrr…"

Tsuna and Chi stepped back warily.

"WAAAAH!" They shouted when Ryohei had jumped up and shouted loudly at the sky.

"Such stamina and passion!" he shouted, gripping Tsuna's shoulders, "Join the boxing club, Sawada!"

"EH!" the two yelled.

"H-how do you know my name?" stuttered Tsuna.

"I heard it from my sister!" answered Ryohei, "She's told me about you!"

"Brother!" came a voice from afar. Looking behind them, Chi saw Kyoko coming their way, carrying a sports bag. Already frazzled from Ryohei's exuberant personality, Chi couldn't take it anymore when the school idol had finally reached them and had passed out.

"Ugh," Chi groaned as she woke up, "Ah, the nurse's office…"

"Chi, you're awake?" Tsuna asked, moving the curtain around the bed. Chi nodded.

"Yeah, what'd I miss?"

Tsuna explained the situation to her while the two headed towards the boxing club's training area.

"…and she looked so happy, how could I say no to that?" finished Tsuna.

"Well, as you know, disappointment is just a fact of life," Chi replied teasingly, "You could say no and she'd be seen as irrational by complaining or trying to win you over with that wide-eyed, teary look."

Tsuna responded by pouting.

Chi chuckled lightly, "I'm only kidding, Tsuna, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah," he said dismissively, "But what am I gonna do though, Chi? I don't want to go through with this!"

"Ngh…"Chi groaned.

Tsuna looked over at his best friend, "You okay, Chi?"

Chi shook her head, "I think I'm gonna be sick…"

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Do you want me to take you back to the nurse?" he offered, "I'll tell you everything after."

"Y-yeah…th-thanks…s-sorry about this…"

After Tsuna helped Chi get back, she laid down. She let herself doze off slightly.

Chi sighed, "Why did things have to get so crazy? It probably would've been better if I died back then, It's pretty obvious Reborn-san and Gokudera-san don't want me here…and Mika-san's only wasting her time training me…"

"Well that sounds familiar," said a familiar voice. Chi sat up, ignoring the dizziness. She saw a silhouette behind the curtain surrounding her bed.

"Shimizu-san?" Chi asked. The shadow revealed itself, and it was indeed, Shimizu Eva.

The tall girl sat herself down on the side of the bed, moving her long, red hair to the side. Making herself comfortable, Eva looked at Chi right in the eye, with the shorter girl quickly averting her topaz-colored gaze.

"Dying seems like a pretty easy way out for everything, huh?" asked Eva, "Though, of course it isn't, you have to consider a lot of things before pulling the trigger."

Chi didn't answer.

Eva laid back across the girl's legs, her hair falling off the side of the bed, the tip dangling a few inches just above the ground, "I think you're going to be a pretty tragic friend, my dear," said Eva, closing her deep blue eyes, "But that's okay, we can be tragic together."

"I-I hope I don't sound rude," mumbled Chi, "But…why exactly did you come to the nurse's office? I thought you'd be with the others…"

Eva sighed lightly, "Well, the main reason I came here is because I wanted to see if you were okay," She sat up and leaned against Chi, "Are you?"

Chi nodded nervously.

"Wonderful!" Eva clapped cheerfully, "We, being me, the boss, Yama-tan, and even Hayato were a little worried. Hayato didn't show it, but I know he was, and Yama-tan said you should drink more milk."

Chi flushed darkly, "Y-you can tell them I'm fine…"

Eva gushed, "Ah~! So adorable!" And she hugged the blushing girl tightly, rubbing their cheeks together, "It has to be illegal to look so cute with a blush~!"

"A-ah…" Chi stuttered, "U-um, w-was th-there another r-reason why you came, Shimizu-san?"

"Oh yes," Eva let go and properly sat down on a chair next to Chi's bed, her expression serious, "I came to ask for your permission about something."

Chi swallowed, "A-and that would be…?"

"Well, since I'm going to become the Family doctor, I have to know my patients," Eva explained, "Reborn didn't give me a choice about reading Boss's file, but for you, I want to know if you'd be okay with me reading it."

"And th-this file…" Chi asked, "I'm guessing it has a-all the information there can be found about me?"

"Well, it _did_ come from Reborn."

Chi bit her lip and contemplated for a few moments, "…I-it's okay."

"Are you sure?" Eva held the pale girl's hand, "I want you to be absolutely sure about this."

"Someone's going to find out everything about me eventually, if someone hasn't already," said Chi.

"Okay, but you do know that if Hayato asks me anything about your file, I'm going to answer him without hesitation, right?" Eva said seriously.

"Y-yeah, I understand."

Eva hopped up and pulled Chi off the bed, "Alrighty then! Come on, I think the guys should be finished with their business by now."

As the girls made their way to the boxing club training area, Chi remembered something.

"Shimizu-san?"

"Hm?" Eva hummed.

"Y-you mentioned that something I said sounded familiar…" explained Chi, "What did you mean by that?"

Eva sighed wistfully, her sapphire blue eyes shimmering sadly, "Hm…I wonder…" she trailed.

After school, Gokudera, Eva, and Yamamoto were walking home with Tsuna and Chi.

The two nervously walked side-by-side, listening to Gokudera have a one-sided argument with Yamamoto and Eva laughing along with him.

Stopping in front of Chi's house, Tsuna and Chi said goodbye to the others and went inside house, intending to have another sleepover.

Stepping inside, Tsuna and Chi greeted Makoto and rushed upstairs to Chi's room.

Tsuna groaned loudly and fell back on his best friend's bed, "Kyoko-chan's brother's going to be part of my 'family'," he complained, "Reborn's just getting greedy now!"

Chi sat down beside him and patted his head, pushing some strands out of his face, "I'm sure it'll be okay, Tsuna, after all, it is really up to you if you're going to be the boss of this, 'Vongola'."

Sighing, Tsuna held the hand on his head, squeezing it, "Yeah, that's true, thanks Chi."

Squeezing back, she replied, "No problem."


	15. Chapter 15

"Ugh…" Chi groaned. She was leaning on Tsuna's right shoulder as school was let out for the day.

Tsuna chuckled, "It's really weird seeing you this tired, Chi."

Chi released a pitiful whimper, "Don't laugh, you know that creepy nightmare last night kept me up," she squeezed her eyes shut, "I hate being tired like this, I can't focus on anything and that leaves me an open target for everyone else, especially when I can't stop thinking about man-eating riceballs…"

Tsuna sighed and raised his right hand to pat her head, "Well, if it helps, I'm feeling a little dizzy, maybe we can skip school tomorrow…"

"Tsuna?"

"What?"

"When did you get a tattoo?"

"Huh?" Tsuna looked at his right hand, "HIEEEE!"

Chi cringed at the loud scream, "Tsu-Tsuna?"

"Wh-what is this!?" he cried. The two inspected Tsuna's hand. Right on his palm was a picture of a black skull with a wide grin and a smoky marking was visible on the side of the skull.

"You know, I think I saw something like that in my nightmare," Chi noted, holding Tsuna's hand and rubbing the marking with her thumb, "I think that riceball had a face like this."

"Chi! Don't act so easy-going about this!" shouted Tsuna, "What is this anyway!?"

"It's an incurable disease called, 'Skullitis'," answered a peculiar voice. Tsuna and Chi whipped around to find Reborn sitting atop a fence, an ominous aura surrounding the tiny tutor, even the ever-placid Leon appeared depressed as he sat of the brim of his owner's fedora, "You're going to die, Tsuna."

"What! Just like that!?" He yelled.

"I wonder how you even got it in the first place…" Chi murmured, she felt a weight on her shoulder and immediately knew it was Reborn.

"Tsuna, how many bullets have you taken to the head so far?" asked the tiny tutor.

"H-how would I know?" Tsuna stuttered.

Reborn held out both his hands, displaying his fingers, "Exactly ten, and they say if you get shot with the Dying Will bullet ten times…terrible things will happen," He made himself comfortable on the girl's shoulder, "Though I didn't expect you to get hit with an incurable disease, oh well."

"'_Oh well'_? Don't talk as if I'm already dead!" Tsuna snapped, "Why didn't you warn me before this?!"

"R-Reborn-san?" Chi squeaked, "A-are you sure there isn't any cure f-for, u-um, S-Skullitis? C-can't we just a-ask Shimizu-san?"

Reborn shook his head, "She's a poisons and toxins expert, she doesn't deal with diseases like this, at least not yet."

"Then what can we do…?" Chi mumbled.

"Hmph," Reborn chuckled, "You're both taking this rather well."

Tsuna grumbled, "Whatever, c'mon Chi, let's just get home."

"O-okay…"

* * *

"Mom! We're home!" Tsuna called out, next to him, Chi was putting away their shoes.

"Sorry for intruding-ah? Mika-san?" The person in question looked up from her position on the couch.

"Hey kid," she replied, "Thought I'd meet up with you guys here, since the two of you walk home together.."

"Mika-san, I thought you were on a mission for another week," said Tsuna, upset since Chi's time would be taken up again.

"I finished early and thought I'd get back here so Chi-chan can finish her endurance training," explained the older woman, "You guys seem a little freaked out, everything okay?"

"U-um…" the two mumbled.

"Could you explain, Chi? I'm gonna try and see if I can wash this thing off," asked Tsuna as he walked upstairs.

"Y-yeah, sure," Chi replied, "W-well, today Tsuna and I found out he contracted something called, 'Skullitis' a-and Reborn-san told us it's because he's been shot with the Dying Will bullet ten times."

"Hm, 'Skullitis' huh?" Mika held her chin, "You know, I think there's a cure for that."

"R-Really?!" Chi exclaimed, "Th-that's great! I-I have to tell Tsuna!" She ran upstairs to the bathroom, "Tsuna! Guess what!"

"Grr…why won't it wash off?" he grumbled.

"Tsuna!"

"Chi, wh-what is it?" asked Tsuna.

"Mika-san said that there's a cure!" she explained, her eyes bright.

"Really-!" "You've never scored a hundred!"

Chi blinked, "Tsuna?"

"Wha-It talks!?" Tsuna shouted.

"You skip school on days when you're supposed to get a shot!" said another skull on Tsuna's arm.

"What the heck's going on!?" the poor boy yelled. Chi felt something, or rather some_one_, land on her shoulder.

"It's revealing an embarrassing secret, right?" asked Reborn, "You'll die an hour after symptoms begin to appear."

"So this is an ACTUAL disease!?"

"But why are the skulls talking, Reborn-san?" Chi questioned nervously. Reborn smirked.

"Well, Skullitis is also known as a death-by-embarrassment disease."

"So everyone's gonna know how much of a loser I am when I die!?" Tsuna cried. Chi patted his shoulder.

"I-I'm sure we can figure out how to cure this, Tsu-"

"You've had weird dreams about your best friend!"

Tsuna froze, "Ch-Chi-!"

Chi averted her eyes.

"I heard nothing," she said shortly. Tsuna snapped.

"GYAAAA!" he sobbed, "Reborn! Help me!"

"I can't help you," Reborn replied calmly.

"Wha-!?"

"But I know someone who can."

"Eh!?" Tsuna and Chi chorused, "Who!?"

"He's a doctor with whom I've made an acquaintance, he's good with incurable diseases," Reborn explained.

"Really?!" Chi exclaimed. Tsuna clasped his hands together.

"Please, could you call him here?" he begged, "Please!"

Reborn smirked, "And? What will you do in return?"

"Eh?" Tsuna and Chi replied in confusion. Reborn jumped onto the counter.

"If I call that doctor here, what do I get in return?" he asked, "Will you be in the top ten for your next test?"

"This is blackmail, right?" Chi wondered out loud. She heard a click of a gun, and flinched, "I-it was j-just a question, Reborn-san! I'm sorry!" she apologized.

"If you don't want to try…" said Reborn ominously. Tsuna got to his knees.

"I will! I will! Please just call him here!" he groveled.

"Would you stop it?!"

"Huh?" Tsuna and Chi looked outside the bathroom and heard a series of crashes.

"Wh-what's going on?" Chi whispered nervously. Tsuna gently pushed her behind him.

"Let's go, Chi," he quietly stepped outside, "Ah, but stay behind me," he warned, looking back at the shivering girl.

"R-right…o-okay…" she stuttered. The duo quietly left the bathroom and was intercepted by a moving figure. Tsuna quickly pushed Chi back as the two watched the figure tumble down the stairs. They flinched when the body crashed against the floor, and looked down at the base of the stairs, they saw that the figure's face was covered in an infamous, purple concoction.

"D-Did he get poisoned!?" shouted Tsuna. Chi gripped his arm.

"Sh-should we see i-if he's okay?" she stared nervously at the man who appeared to be unconscious.

"Don't bother," said Bianchi, walking downstairs to see her handiwork, Tsuna and Chi trailed behind, "If he's dead, then I did the whole world a favor," she grumbled. Mika got up from the couch during all the commotion, and looked to see who fell.

"The hell…Shamal?" Mika's expression showed some semblance of disgust, "Well…if he's here then…"

"Michael? What are you doing here?" questioned the younger Italian woman, "I thought you were still on a mission."

"Got back early, and its Mika," she replied, "He made a pass at you again?"

"Tried to kiss and grope too," Bianchi groaned, she turned to Chi, "Don't get too close, you might catch something."

Chi nearly collapsed if Tsuna hadn't caught her in time, "D-don't go killing people in my house!" he scolded. The man from before shifted.

"Ah, how feisty," he sighed, he peeled off the purple mass on his face and jumped up to kiss Bianchi on the cheek, "That's how girls should be, I think I love you even more now!"

Bianchi made quick work of him and viciously kicked him to the side, "Die!"

"H-he's still alive!" shouted Tsuna, "Who is this guy?"

Chi hid behind him, "Wh-what did Bianchi-san mean by 'catch'?" she mumbled weakly, Chi felt Reborn jump onto her shoulder.

"He's the doctor I mentioned earlier," said Reborn, "I summoned him here for you, meet Dr. Shamal."

The trio watched as Bianchi kept fighting the strange man's advances.

"As you can see," continued Reborn, "He's a womanizer."

"You really couldn't find someone else to cure Sawada-kun, Reborn?" asked Mika, looking at the doctor with obvious disdain.

"I don't see why you have such a problem," Reborn noted, "He doesn't bother you since you look too much like a man for him to care."

Mika flushed angrily, "I don't know if I should be grateful or insulted."

"Reborn-san," Chi asked, her voice trembling, "I-is he r-really a doctor?"

The tiny hitman nodded, "He's helped me before."

"Eh, really?" asked the two teens.

"He's the one who delivered me when I was born," he explained with a straight face.

"When you were BORN!?" Tsuna exclaimed in disbelief. Shamal turned to look at Reborn.

"Oh, that's right," he drawled, "That's why you called me here, right Reborn?" He walked to Tsuna, "Sorry about that, I tend to have a one track mind."

"N-nice to meet you?" said Tsuna, uncertainly.

"Well, first things first," Shamal raised his hands, "Pardon me," and he pressed his hands against the boy's chest.

"HUH!?" Tsuna shouted. Chi felt faint. Shamal moved his hands away.

"Sorry, I don't treat guys," he admitted. Tsuna's mouth dropped.

"Oh, right," said Reborn plainly.

"Oh!" Shamal's face lit up, when he caught sight of the pale girl behind a shocked Tsuna, "Well, hello there, what's your name, Cutie?" he spoke with a sickly sweet tone.

Chi had merely stared back for a moment, "…m…mi-mifune…chi," she squeaked. Shamal gave her a lecherous grin.

"'Mifune Chi'," he let the name roll off his tongue, "How cute! How 'bout a nice long hug?" he spread his arms wide. Mika was quick to grab the perverted doctor's face and kept him at arms length while pulling the girl back.

"Shamal," she growled, squeezing the man's head, "Get any closer, and I'll make sure no one ever finds your body…"

"Aw," came the muffled reply, "Feeling sore because I'm not giving you any attention, Michael?"

"That's it, time to rip off your head," she growled menacingly, "And I don't mean the one on your shoulders."

"Wait, Mika-san!" Tsuna shouted, "H-he needs to help me with this disease!"

Mika glowered at the man she held tightly, "Looks like you get to live another day," she grabbed Chi's shoulders and made her way to the door, "I'm taking Chi-chan home away from this pervert."

"Tsu-Tsuna!" Chi cried.

"Chi!"

"Don't worry, she'll be free in a couple hours," Mika reassured.

* * *

"M-Mika-san?" asked Chi.

"What's up, kid?" she replied, making herself comfortable on a park bench.

Chi twiddled her thumbs, noting that the young woman wasn't carrying her bag of equipment, "U-um, a-are we not r-running today?"

"No, you've had enough running for now," she answered, "Your stamina and endurance is getting better, so we'll be starting self-defense another day. Today, I'll be telling you more about your flame."

"M-my flame?" Chi felt nervous, "Wh-what do you mean by…ah! Y-you mean like that fire on Tsuna's head?"

Mika nodded, "Something like that, have you ever felt a strange rush of adrenaline?"

"A-A 'strange r-rush'?" Chi slightly tilted her head, "I-I don't understand…"

Mika hummed, "Say that this adrenaline rush didn't make you all shaky, did that ever happen?"

Chi bit her lip, thinking. Then her eyes held recognition, "Y-yes! Th-that did happen, b-but only recently."

"That would be your flame reacting to Sawada's," she explained, "There are usually only seven types of flames, but I'll let Reborn explain that to you when the time calls for it. Your flame," Mika pointed at Chi, "is peculiar and dangerous."

Chi turned ashen, "D-dangerous?"

Mika nodded, "Not much is known about it for certain reasons, I'm still doing my own research on it."

"Wh-how?" Chi tried to calm her shaking hands. The thought of dealing with something dangerous and possibly life-threatening did not sit well in her mind.

Mika sighed, "Well, the main reason we don't know much is because this flame is unstable when it's not properly bonded with the mind and body, therefore, if not handled carefully…let's say it's not good."

"B-but, I-I don't know how to handle my flame!" Chi panicked. Mika placed a hand on her head.

"Don't worry for now," she soothed, "From what you and Reborn told me, your flame is just starting to wake up, all I want you to do now is work on your strength and try your best to hold back your flame."

"H-how do I do that?"

"It's easy, just take some deep breathes, calm yourself down, your flame reacts to intense emotions and a large surge of adrenaline," Mika patted Chi's head, "It'll try to protect Sawada because of his flame, but I think he can take care of himself for now. So there's no need to worry."

Chi sighed in relief.

"Now let's get running."

"Wh-what?!" Chi squeaked.

"I know I said that you've had enough running, but it's been a couple of weeks, we got to keep those muscles strong," Mika explained, "And since I don't have any equipment today, I'll be expecting you to run faster and longer, and make sure you pump your legs."

Chi paled.

* * *

Later that night, Chi was lying face down on her bed still sore from training despite a soothing bath. She painfully pulled herself up and took her cell phone from the nightstand. Flipping it open, Chi pressed and held onto a button, waiting for Tsuna to pick up.

"Chi, I'm cured!" Chi felt the soreness immediately go away.

"Really? That's great!" she said, "How did you convince him to help you?"

A long pause.

"Tsuna?" Chi asked.

"W-well," Tsuna began nervously, "You know how that weird disease would shout secrets about me?"

"Uh huh…"

"He saw one that said you were the only girl I've ever really talked to…and he felt sorry for me…"

Chi blinked, "Ah…that's…"

"Embarrassing, I know!" he cried, "I shouldn't be ashamed of only ever talking to you!"

"Ah, Tsuna, it's okay. It's all over and done with, right?"

He sniffed, "Y-yeah…"

"So now, you can just put it behind you," she consoled, "Right?"

"Yeah, that's true," said Tsuna, "Thanks Chi."

"No problem, just glad to know you're okay."

"Thanks, how was training today?" he asked, with a slight tinge of bitterness and…jealousy?

Chi groaned and fell back on her bed, "I felt so sore…Mika-san said that she'll be teaching me self-defense soon, since my endurance is getting better."

Tsuna chuckled, "Should you be happy or worried?"

"I don't know…" she sighed, "But enough about me, do you think Reborn-san will let you come over for a quick game?"

"I want to, but he'd probably threaten me with his gun," Tsuna complained, "We should get some sleep, before Reborn goes over to your place and accuse you for keeping me up."

Chi laughed, "Okay, good night Tsuna."

"Good night, Chi."

_Click_


	16. Chapter 16

**(5/4/2013) I'M SO SO SO SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! ****But, I have been working on the previous chapters and changed a few things, so feel free to reread them if you wish. Please enjoy!**

* * *

This was not good.

Not for Chi, anyway.

You see, sometimes after school, she'd help out the librarian when Tsuna had a detention and usually around this time, the library was rather empty since most of the students were either going home or in their clubs. Chi liked it here, since most of those who came in were the students who didn't care much about her and Tsuna's reputation and therefore left them alone.

So, why was Chi so worried?

Well, one of those students was the infamous Hibari Kyouya.

Chi didn't really have any problems with the Head Prefect of the Disciplinary Committee, he usually had good reason for beating students to a bloody pulp and enjoying it, but that was the thing.

He _enjoyed_ hurting people and sometimes Chi suspected that he would make up rules just to 'punish' a student.

Not that she'd ever tell anyone, she wanted to live thank you very much.

It was pretty surprising that she didn't pass out whenever he showed up.

And right now, that very person was sitting in a corner of the library. From where Chi was standing, er, well sitting, she couldn't tell if he was reading or napping. Hibari was well-known for taking frequent naps at the school, mostly the school roof, and, every now and then, a little corner in the library.

Chi was focused on inputting new books into the system when she heard quiet steps approaching the front desk. She stilled and hesitantly looked up, frightened yellow meeting steely gray.

Chi froze and pushed down the urge to faint (she really had to kick that habit, Reborn-san would get so impatient with her...) and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"H-how may I h-help you, Hibari-san?" she asked meekly. The prefect tossed a moderately thick novel on the desk.

"A-ah, you w-want to check out, u-um," she swallowed again, "I-I'll need y-your ID, Hibari-san."

Hibari sighed and took out his ID. Once more, he tossed it on top of the book. Chi bowed and scanned his card then the book. She clicked a few buttons on the computer screen and printed out a receipt. She bowed again and handed him his things, "Your book is due in two weeks, Hibari-san."

"Hn," he replied and left.

Once his footsteps faded away, Chi slid down her chair and under the desk, curling up into a fetal position, putting her head between her knees. She focused on keeping her breathing even.

"Mifune-chan, I'm ba-ah!" The librarian gasped, "Mifune-chan! What happened? Don't tell me those girls came in to bully you again!"

Chi shakily rose her head and shook it, "N-no, Hi-Hibari-san w-wanted to ch-check out a-a book..."

The woman sighed in relief, "Well, thank goodness, I was hoping I wouldn't take too long, but you're free to go, Mifune-chan," she patted the girl's shoulder, "Oh, by the way, Sawada-kun and Yamamoto-kun were looking for you, they were with that new student too."

"O-oh? Wh-where were they?" Chi asked while putting away her things.

"Hm," the librarian tapped her chin, "they were just around the corner, you might be able to catch them if you go now."

"A-alright," Chi made her way to the exit, "I'll be leaving then."

"Have a good day, Mifune-chan."

"Chi!"

"Hm?" Chi turned around and spotted Tsuna with the others at the end of the hall, "Tsuna!"

"Hurry up, Woman!" Gokudera snapped, "I'm not gonna let you make Boss late!"

"Aw, come on, Gokudera," scolded Yamamoto lightly, "she just stepped out of the library!"

"Oi! Don't get so familiar with me, Baseball Freak!" growled the bomber.

While the two were arguing, Chi had caught up to the group. She noticed he group was short one red-head.

"Where's Shimizu-san?"

"Ah, she said she had to go to work," answered Tsuna, "She left right after the bell."

"Mm..." Chi mumbled, "It's against the rules for middle school students to get a job, right?"

"Eva-chan told us to keep it a secret," he said, "She works at that music store that's close to the grocery store, right?"

Chi nodded, "I hope she doesn't get in trouble...ah!" She gasped, "I almost forgot to ask, where are we heading?"

"Hm? Oh!" Tsuna exclaimed, "We're going to the Reception Room, Reborn said he wanted to make it a hideout."

Chi frowned, "We need a hideout at the school?" She bit her lip, "But wouldn't that be dangerous for the other students?"

Tsuna sighed harshly, "It's not like we have a choice, this is Reborn we're talking about."

Chi mumbled worriedly, "I-I suppose so-WAAAH!" she screamed. Yamamoto had swung an arm over her shoulders.

"Hey guys, let us in on the conversation!" He said brightly.

"Don't get so close to the Boss, Baseball Idiot," Gokudera growled.

"Hahaha, don't get so angry Gokudera," chuckled Yamamoto, "We're friends right, Tsuna, Chi?"

"U-uh, yeah, sure," Tsuna stuttered, answering for both him and Chi, seeing that she was too nervous to talk. Though he was happy to see that she didn't faint...yet.

"We're here, Boss!" Gokudera announced.

Yamamoto opened the door and looked inside, "Wow, I didn't know there was a room like this at our school."

A stern voice cut in, "Who are you?"

"Hibari-san!" Chi squeaked. Yamamoto began looking worried while Gokudera narrowed his eyes. Tsuna had been pushed behind him, as a 'precaution' he said, so the shorter boy had no idea who was inside.

"Herbivores," said Hibari coldly, "I hate crowding," he took out his tonfas, "I'll bite you to death."

Gokudera gave the teen a dirty look, "Who the hell are you calling, 'Herbivores'!?"

"Hey, this room actually looks really nice!" Tsuna remarked, stepping into the room.

"Ah-!"

"Boss-!"

"Tsuna!" Chi threw her arm out and pushed him back, receiving a powerful hit on the right side of her head knocking her unconscious.

* * *

When Chi became aware, she felt a numbing pain on the side of her lip. She groaned quietly.

"Chi?" someone asked, "Are...are you awake?"

Chi groggily opened her eyes and was met with Tsuna's face hovering closely over hers, "...What... happened?"

Tsuna sat back, releasing a loud breath, "Hibari kicked our butts after he knocked you out," he explained, "Then we woke up here in the nurse's office and Eva-chan was taking care of our bruises and stuff, oh and she stitched up your lip too."

Chi slowly sat up, with some help from Tsuna of course, and touched her bottom lip, pausing, she then looked at Tsuna and said, "Are you okay?"

Tsuna face-faulted, "Wha-! Th-that's what you say after you find out you got stitches!?"

Chi blinked, "Well, it's expected after you get beat up, right?"

Tsuna sighed once more, "Okay, you've been beaten one too many times to expect these things, Chi."

She shrugged, "I guess, so, are you okay?"

"Yeah, for the most part," he nodded, "Reborn shot me with the Dying Will Bullet again and I had to get a new uniform, by the way, remind me to pay you back for last time."

Chi shook her head, "It's fine, I don't mind."

"Bu-"

"No."

Grumbles.

"Fine, if you say so, Chi."

"How are Yamamoto-san and Gokudera-san?"

"They're okay," he answered, "Eva-chan's kind of doting on them while I'm here with you, Reborn's with them too."

Chi leaned back against the headboard, "That's good, everyone's okay then."

"Are you ready to go home?" asked Tsuna, "Eva-chan said we're clear to go when you wake up."

Chi nodded, "Yeah, hey," she sat up again, "You wanna play some video games? We only got halfway through that last one."

Tsuna grinned, "Yeah! Come on, let's go!"


End file.
